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*THE*PMABLEg*OF*JEM* 



THE 



Parables of Jesus 



BY THE 

Rev. ALFRED NEVIN, D. D., LL.D. 



"What if earth 
Be but the shadow of heaven, and things therein 
Each to other like, more than on earth is thought?" 

Milton. 
Never man spake like this man."— John vn. 46. 
And he spake many things unto them in parables."— Matt. XIII. 3. 



PHILADELPHIA : 

PRESBYTERIAN BOARD OF PUBLICATION. 
1334 Chestnut Stbeet. 




Y 



COPYRIGHT, 1881, BY 

THE TRUSTEES OF THE 

PRESBYTERIAN BOARD OF PUBLICATION. 



Westcott & Thomson, 
Stereotypers and Eleclrolypers, Philada. 



CONTENTS. 



PAGE 

THE PARABLE 7 

THE TWO BUILDERS 13 

THE SOWER 27 

THE TARES 53 

THE MUSTARD-SEED 71 

THE LEAVEN 83 

THE HIDDEN TREASURE 97 

THE PEARL 115 

THE DRAW-NET 133 

THE MERCILESS SERVANT 147 

THE VINEYARD-LABORERS 165 

THE TWO SONS 185 

THE WICKED VINE-DRESSERS 201 

THE ROYAL MARRIAGE-FEAST 217 

THE TEX VIRGINS 241 

THE TALENTS 261 

THE GROWING SEED 281 

THE TWO DEBTORS 295 

THE GOOD SAMARITAN. ...... 309 

THE [MPOETUNATE FRIEND 325 

THE RICB POOL 339 

THE I 1M [TLESS FIG TREE. . • 353 

THE GREAT SUPPER 365 

THE LOST SHEEP 379 

1» 5 



6 CONTENTS. 

taoe 

THE LOST COIN 397 

THE PRODIGAL SON 411 

THE UNJUST STEWARD 435 

THE RICH MAN AND LAZARUS 449 

THE IMPORTUNATE WIDOW 465 

THE PHARISEE AND THE PUBLICAN 477 

THE POUNDS 489 



THE PARABLE. 



The word parable is derived from the Greek Ttapa(3oXrj, 
"which comes from -apaftdMziv, to compare, to collate. In 
the Old Testament it denotes an obscure or enigmatical 
saying, as in Ps. lxxviii. 2 : " I will open my mouth in 
a parable : I will utter dark sayings of old ;" also a fic- 
titious narrative invented for the purpose of conveying 
truth in a less offensive or more engaging form than 
that of direct assertion, as in Nathan's reproof of David 
(2 Sam. xii. 1-4), Jotham's exposure of the folly of the 
Shechemites (Judg. ix. 7-15), and the address by Je- 
hoash to Amaziah (2 Kings xiv. 9, 10). It is generally 
employed in the New Testament in this latter sense. It 
has been supposed, indeed, that some of the parables 
uttered by our Saviour narrate real and not fictitious 
events; but whether this was the case or not is a point 
of no consequence. Each of his parables was essentially 
true. It was tsue to human nature, and nothing more 
was necessary. 

" The parable differs from the fable, moving as it does 
in a spiritual world, and never transgressing the order 
of things natural ; from the mythus, there being in the 
latter an unconscious blending of the deeper meaning 
with the outward symbol, the two remaining separate 
and separable in the [(arable; from the proverb, inas- 



8 THE PARABLE. 

much as it is longer carried out, and not merely acci- 
dentally and occasionally, but necessarily, figurative ; 
from the allegory, comparing as it does one thing with 
another, but preserving them apart as an inner and an 
outer, and not transferring, as does the allegory, the 
properties and qualities and relations of one to the 
other." 

The mode of teaching by parables is one of great 
antiquity. It was, as we have already seen, practiced 
under the Old Testament dispensation, and appears to 
have been very generally afterward adopted by the 
rabbis even down to the time of Christ. Its advantages 
are obvious. Experience has demonstrated that this 
sort of composition is better calculated to command 
attention, to captivate the imagination, to affect the 
heart, and to make deep and lasting impressions on 
the memory, than the most ingenious and most elegant 
discourses. Besides, the very obscurity in which para- 
bles are sometimes involved has the effect of exciting 
a greater degree. of curiosity and interest, and of urging 
the mind to a more vigorous exertion of its powers, 
than any other mode of instruction. There is some- 
thing for the understanding to work upon, and when the 
concealed meaning is at length elicited, we are apt to 
value ourselves on the discovery, as the effect of our 
own penetration and discernment, and for that very rea- 
son to pay more regard to the moral it conveys. 

Then, again, when the mind is under the influence 
of strong prejudices, of violent passions or inveterate 
habits, and when, in these circumstances, it becomes 
necessary to rectify error, to reprove sin and to bring 
the offender to a sense of his danger and his guilt, there 
is no way in which this difficult task can be so well 



THE PARABLE. 9 

executed, and the painful truths that must be told so 
successfully insinuated into the mind, as by disguising 
them under the veil of a well-wrought parable. 

For all these reasons we need not be surprised that 
our Saviour largely employed this mode of teaching. 
And yet it must not be overlooked that he was influ- 
enced by another consideration in doing so. The Jews 
rejected his doctrine when it was plainly delivered ; it 
was therefore to be clothed in figurative speeches. Had 
they been docile hearers, they would have had every- 
thing explained; they shut their eyes and hardened 
their hearts, and so truth assumed a veiled form, which 
the careless did not choose to search into, and only the 
earnest-minded desired to understand. Our Lord gave 
this reason to his disciples when they questioned him, 
and showed that besides the intrinsic beauty of the par- 
able it tested the hearts of those to whom it was spoken. 
Matt. xiii. 10-17. 

It is proper to add, however, that though both the 
design and the effect of Christ's teaching in parables 
was to remove it in a manner further from the Jews 
and make it less palpable to their understandings, he 
still longed for their salvation. He wept in anguish 
of spirit over them even at the very last, when he 
knew the things of their peace were for ever hidden 
from their eyes. And not only so, but no sooner were 
the things which concerned himself fully accomplished 
than he sent his apostles with the message of recon- 
ciliation to the Jews first, propounding it in the plain- 
est terms and confirming it by signs from heaven. 

Our Lord's parables have ever been regarded with 
profound admiration. And well they may be. They 
attest the genuineness of the Gospels, for they arc in- 



10 THE PARABLE. 

imitable by any writers of that or the succeeding age. 
They possess a life and power which stamp them with 
the "image and superscription" of the Son of man. 
They are the most complete and finished models — " ap- 
ples' of gold in pictures of silver." They present the 
most important instructions in the most inviting form, 
in the noblest language ; with the most lively colors, in 
the most suitable arrangement are these small paintings 
set before our eyes. They contain nothing more and 
nothing less than is just necessary to give clearness and 
force to the ideas sought to be unfolded ; everything is 
rendered palpable through means of the most powerful 
contrasts, and each individual is marked according to his 
characteristic properties. 

In their original delivery these parables were wisely 
adapted to the time and people at which and for whom 
they were spoken. Yet they are equally valuable now, 
and in all parts of the world, "for doctrine, for re- 
proof, for correction, for instruction in righteousae-." 
They never weary the mind, never grow old, never lose 
their force or beauty. 

The scope or design of Christ's parables is sometimes 
to be gathered from his own express declarations, as in 
Luke xii. 16-21 ; xiv. 11 ; xvi. 9. In other cases it 
must be sought by considering the context, the circum- 
stances in which it was spoken and the features of the 
narrative itself — i. e. the literal sense. For the right 
understanding of this, an acquaintance with the customs 
of the people, with the productions of their country 
and with the events of their history, is often desirable. 

" True as it doubtless is," observes an eminent scholar, 
"that there was in each parable a leading thought to be 
learnt, partly from the parable itself, partly from the 



THE PARABLE. 11 

occasion of its utterance, and that all else gathers 
round that thought as a centre, it must be remem- 
bered that in the great patterns which our Lord him- 
self has given us there is more than this. Not only 
the sower and the seed and the several soils have their 
counterparts in the spiritual life, but the birds of the 
air, the thorns, the scorching heat, have each of them 
a significance. The explanation of the wheat and the 
tares — given with less fullness, an outline as it were, 
which the advancing scholars would be able to fill up — 
is equally specific. It may be inferred from these two 
instances that we are, at least, justified in looking for 
a meaning even in the seeming accessories of a parable." 

"We have the right interpretation," remarks Dr. 
Angus, " when all the main circumstances are ex- 
plained. If any important member of the narrative 
is rendered by our interpretation nugatory, or is par- 
alyzed, the interpretation is false, and when we have 
a true interpretation of the whole, that interpretation 
of any part is to be rejected which does not conduce 
to the consistency and force of the whole." 

The truth, in the matter of interpretation of the 
parables, in our judgment, is, that we are to avoid both 
the extreme of supposing that only the design of the 
whole should be regarded, and the extreme of insisting 
upon every clause as having a double meaning. In 
other words, whilst on the one hand we are to ascertain 
the general scope of the parables, and to interpret the 
attendant circumstances as they bear on this, on the 
other hand we are to guard against the mistake of 
some well-meaning people, who have supposed that 
every particular of the figure presented has a symbol- 
ical meaning apart from the principal illustration, thus 



12 THE PARABLE. 

making the whole a collection of riddles, on which 
ingenuity may amuse itself, but which common sense 
repudiates. 

It is a wise saying of Trench, that the parables may 
not be made first sources of doctrine. Doctrines other- 
wise and already grounded may be illustrated or indeed 
further confirmed by them, but it is not allowable to 
constitute doctrine first by their aid. For from the 
literal to the figurative, from the clearer to the more 
obscure, has been ever recognized as the law of Scripture 
interpretation. 

Guided by these principles, we have humbly yet ear- 
nestly attempted an unfolding of the parables of our 
blessed Lord. Much more anxious to prove useful than 
to be esteemed original, we have gathered from every 
available source, both in substance and form, whatever 
would subserve our purpose. We have also steadily 
aimed to give the exposition such plainness and fidelity 
as would, whilst free from the parade of scholarship or 
the vanity of speculation, meet the capacity and satisfy 
the needs of ordinary minds. The preparation of the 
work has given us great pleasure, not unattended, we 
trust, with spiritual profit ; and our strongest desire for 
it will be fulfilled if the great Teacher graciously ac- 
companies it with the enlightening, comforting and 
sanctifying influence of the Holy Spirit to all who 
may give it either a cursory glance or a careful perusal. 



^-THE * TWO * BUILDERS.-* 



'To spread the page of Scripture, and. compare 
Our conduct with the laws engraven there; 
To measure all that passes in the breast 
Faithfully, fairly, by that sacred test; 
To dive into the sacred deeps within ; 
To spare no passion and no favorite sin; 
And search the themes important above all — 
Ourselves, and our recovery from our fall." 

2 13 



24- Therefore whosoever heareth these sayings of mine, and doeth them, 

I will liken him unto a zvise man, which built his house upon a rock : 
2J And the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and 

beat upon that house ; and it fell not : for it was founded upon a 
2b rock. And every one that heareth these sayings of mine, and doeth 

them not, shall be likened unto a foolish man, which built his house 
2J upon the sand: And the rain descended, and the floods came, and the 

winds blew, and beat upon that house ; and it fell : and great was 

the fall of it. 

Matt. vii. 24-27. See also Luke vi. 47-49. 

14 



THE 

Parables of Jesus. 



THE TWO BUILDERS. 



"A /TORE than eighteen hundred years ago an im- 
-L-'-L mense multitude assembled on a mountain in 
Galilee to hear the "Teacher come from God" proclaim 
the Magna Charta of his heavenly kingdom. The 
illustrious Speaker penetrated the hearts of his audience 
and read their most secret emotions, their passions, their 
prejudices — even their very enmity against himself. 
He saw before him the sleek scribe, the lawless Gad- 
arene and the canting Pharisee. Turning from these 
hostile hearers, he addressed himself to the few devoted 
followers sitting at his feet, but in tones loud enough 
to be heard by the gazing crowd. His utterances on 
that memorable occasion constituted the " Sermon on 
the Mount," which was designed to be the exponent 
of the new faith and the guide of his beloved people 
in all future time, and of which the great Webster 
said, " The richness and beauty of the gems sparkling 
through it prove them to belong to the treasury of 
Heaven." 

lfi 



16 THE PARABLES OF JESUS. 

It was just as he finished this inimitable sermon that 
our Lord spoke this parable. Having opened the spirit- 
ual nature of his kingdom and the true, practical char- 
acter of saving religion, he now proceeded to make a 
solemn application of what had been said. This he 
did first by giving warning in plain language : " Not 
every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter 
into the kingdom of heaven ;" and then he uttered the 
similitude now before us. 

A peculiar charm invests this parable from the fact 
that it was the first which fell from the lips of Jesus. 
With what delight, did the world hold such treasures, 
would we look at the first stanzas of Homer's muse, 
the first attempt of Archimedes' skill, the first oration 
of Demosthenes, the first sermon of Chrysostom, the 
first sketch of Rubens, though we could hope to see 
nothing in these but the dawn of talents which at ma- 
turity produced their splendid works and won them im- 
mortal fame ! With what a thrill of interest, therefore, 
must we look upon the first parable of Him " in whom 
are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge " ! 

Such a thing as the Saviour here describes might 
happen in our land, but it was far more likely to hap- 
pen in Judea, where the rains are periodical. When 
they descend they often descend in torrents, and con- 
tinue to do so with unabated violence for a number of 
days. In consequence of this a deluge rushes down 
with dreadful impetuosity from the high grounds to 
the plains. The huts of the inhabitants — generally 
formed of clay hardened in the sun — are exposed to 
great danger. They are often literally melted down 
by the heavy rains, or undermined, and then overturned 
by the furious gusts of wind, and when not founded 



THE TWO BUILDERS. 17 

on the solid rock are swept away by the resistless 
torrent. 

The word " therefore " in the parable imports that 
between the men named there was a most marked dis- 
tinction in the sight of God. Yet the distinction of 
" wise " and " foolish " is not to be regarded as one 
of the head, but as one of the heart. It is not that 
the one class was deficient in intellect and the other 
abounded in it, but that the one had a deficiency which 
was moral and spiritual, and the other an excellency 
which was spiritual, permanent and saving. Mani- 
festly, the characterization of the parties has its foun- 
dation in truth. Who is wise if that man is not who is 
more concerned about the eternal world to which he is 
hastening than about the affairs of time — who is more 
zealous to obtain everlasting happiness than to gain 
the riches of this world ? And who is foolish if not the 
man who is resting on some false hope, erecting an 
edifice which shall tumble and smother him in its 
ruins, sending, as it falls, its dreary echoes to rever- 
berate through a lost eternity ? 

The direct reference in the expressions, "heareth and 
doeth them," and " heareth and doeth them not," is to 
the " sayings " of our Lord in the discourse just con- 
cluded ; but what he affirms of these words is equally 
true of all his words, whether spoken by himself per- 
sonally or made known through his inspired apostles. 
To "hear" the sayings of Christ is just to have them 
addressed to us, to have an opportunity of becoming 
acquainted with them. To " do " these sayings is some- 
tliing more than merely to perform the actions which 
he requires; it is to conform the whole inward ;ui<l 
outward life to them, to form our whole character by 



18 THE PARABLES OF JESUS. 

them, to fashion our habits of thought, feeling and 
action in accordance with them. The man who is repre- 
sented as hearing and doing 'is one who not only listens 
to these sayings and understands their meaning, but, be- 
lieving them, repents, changes his mind, is " converted," 
is radically changed, is " born again," becomes " a new 
creature," being "transformed by the renewing of his 
mind." The other description of character, whilst it in- 
cludes several classes — those to whom our Lord's say- 
ings are addressed, and who make light of them, and 
those who, listening to them with some degree of atten- 
tion, still refuse to believe and obey them — yet is mainly 
intended to designate such as profess to believe Christ's 
words and declare their determination to obey them, but 
while calling him Lord, Lord, do not the things which 
he has commanded. All these classes have this in com- 
mon : that, while they have the means of obtaining ac- 
quaintance with the words of Jesus, they refuse that 
subjection of mind and heart and conduct to them to 
which they are entitled, and without which, from the 
very nature of the case, saving benefit cannot be derived 
from them. 

Observe the points in which the two characters here 
presented were alike. 

Both men were builders. The word was not totally 
lost upon either of them. It was heard by them both, 
and not altogether in vain. Each felt that he had a 
work to do, and both set about their own several occu- 
pations. Both were hearers of the Saviour. They also 
heard with sufficient attention to understand, and they 
were so influenced by what they heard that a spirit of 
inquiry was produced in each of them. They saw the 
necessity of building a house, a place of refuge. Hence 



THE TWO BUILDERS. 19 

they do not represent pagans in the darkness of ignor- 
ance, or Jews who utterly reject Jesus, or infidels, or 
openly profane persons, but a class altogether different 
— such as hear, read and outwardly respect the gos- 
pel, such as get acquainted with its doctrines, precepts 
and gracious promises. 

Each built a house. Many persons whose minds are 
somewhat awake to the momentous realities of religion 
propose to come to some determination in which they 
will feel safe, and to erect for themselves some habi- 
tation which will shelter them from the storms through 
which they know they must pass. But for various 
reasons they defer this work, or, if they commence it, 
proceed with it but a little until it is abandoned. Not 
so, however, with these men. They selected a site, col- 
lected the materials, commenced the building, and stayed 
not until it was finished. Both fabrics too were of the 
same description. Nothing, at least, is said disparaging- 
ly respecting the external appearance of that which the 
foolish builder erected. It was such an one as he felt 
he could rest in with security, and hence doubtless must 
have been constructed with some carefulness and skill. 

The houses were both exposed to storms. On both of 
them "the rain descended, and the floods came, and 
the winds blew," and "the stream did beat vehemently." 

The Christian may expect to be tried by God, by the 
world and by Satan. He has nowhere a promise of 
a life of ease, of freedom from trial, tribulation and 
anguish. His Master was "a man of sorrows and 
acquainted with grief." "The servant is not better 
than his lord." If these things were done in the green 
tree, what may be expected in the dry ? When John, 
from the rocky and desolate island, saw " a great multi- 



20 THE PARABLES OF JESUS. 

tude clothed with white robes, and palms in their 
hands," he was told, " These are they which came out 
of great tribulation, and have washed their robes, and 
made them white in the blood of the Lamb." The 
believer has nowhere been told that his house shall not 
be exposed to storm and flood. But, blessed be God ! 
he may glory in tribulations, " knowing that tribulation 
worketh patience, and patience experience, and experience 
hope, and hope maketh not ashamed, because the love 
of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost 
which is given unto us." 

" Let not him who is established and built upon the 
rock," says Chemnitz, "imagine that he can now be 
no more overtaken by all manner of affliction or danger. 
Rather is he like a house that is situated on the shore 
of the sea, upon which the waves beat heavier than is 
known to houses inland. This house must be the 
target and mark of all the beating storms of the 
world. But because it is founded on the rock, it may 
indeed be shaken to the centre and its rafters creak, yet 
fall shall it never, for its foundation stands fast and 
immovable. Our great concern should not be, whether 
trials await us, not whether the tempest will come, but 
whether we have a good building on a sure foundation 
that will defy the sweeping of the torrents." 

"While I draw this fleeting breath, 
When my heartstrings break in death, 
When I soar to worlds unknown, 
See thee on thy judgment-throne— 
Rock of Ages, cleft for me, 
Let me hide myself in thee." 

Not only is the true believer, however, destined to 
trials and afflictions, but so is the man, also, whose 



THE TWO BUILDERS. 21 

religion is false. Only let him act as if he were a 
child of God, and the reproach which the world will 
cast upon him, and the seductive influences with which 
Satan will ply him, will combine with disappoint- 
ment, poverty, sickness, mental oppression, and change 
of scene, circumstances and society, to try what manner 
of person he is, as anticipatory of the final test when 
we shall stand at the bar of God, where not a single 
self-deceiver shall be left unstripped, nor one trembling 
believer disappointed or unblessed. 

Thus is it evident that these builders have a strong 
resemblance. Both proceeded to build houses. To one 
passing by they would appear to be equally wise and 
skillful ; all he could see would be the walls of either 
house as they were rising above the level of the ground 
— the one, it may be, attracting him most from a greater 
pretension about it than the other. The object of both 
was the same. They wished to build a house which 
should shelter them under its roof, and be the means 
of pleasure and comfort to them. Both of them had 
time given them in order to do this ; they had oppor- 
tunity to engage in it as they severally desired. Both 
of them had the choice of situation ; they might build 
where they pleased. Both of them finish and take 
possession of their dwellings. This was in fair weather, 
when all was calm and serene, and gave promise of quiet, 
security and peace. Both of the edifices were tried. 
On each of them there fell a storm which put them to 
the severest proof. And it was not a little storm for 
one and a great storm for the other, but it was a vehe- 
ment flood niid t cm pest for both. 

Observe now the contrast. These men differed as to their 
calculations for the future. There was danger ahead. 



22 THE PARABLES OF JESUS. 

This was owing to the state of the earth. " For sev- 
eral months," says a modern traveler, " there is not a 
drop of rain in that country, and the burning sun has 
loosened the ground, when at once the torrents descend, 
the chapped earth suddenly swells, and the foundations 
are moved by the change ;" so that iu erecting an edifice 
it was of the utmost importance to select a site where 
the base would not suffer from the teeming rain. This 
was thought of by the wise man, and he acted accord- 
ingly. The other thought only of fine weather. He was 
solicitous only for the present convenience and comfort 
of his building. He troubled himself not about the 
future. The sky was clear when he began to build ; no 
storms were rising, no floods swelling. Imagining that 
it would be always thus, he acted accordingly. 

So, too, is it with the real Christian and the nominal 
one. The one, as it has well been said, is satisfied with 
a religion that will answer his present purpose, quiet 
his own conscience, and make him respectable among 
his neighbors. There is no forethought, no anxiety to 
be right. And the reason is plain : he is unacquainted 
with the evils for which he needs a remedy. But to 
the other the Holy Spirit has shown the misery of his 
lost condition, and has enabled him to see his present 
wants and the evils that are coming on him. A religion 
which will satisfy his conscience and his neighbors is 
not what he cares for, but a religion that will bring 
pardon and strength and salvation — a religion that 
will satisfy his God, endure a storm and support him 
when everything else gives way. He wants a hope 
that will bear him up when conscience stings, Satan 
accuses and death strikes — a refuge for his soul amidst 
the convulsions and terrors of a departing world. 



THE TWO BUILDERS. 23 

By one of these men a rock was chosen for a founda- 
tion — a firm, immovable, unyielding basis. By the 
other the spot was selected that was most pleasant and 
inviting — the sand; which, though in the dry season 
it might appear solid and firm, yet was fragile in its 
texture and movable in its character. Here is the main 
point of diversity between the persons represented; and 
it is of the greatest importance to mark the scope of the 
parable in this respect. One of the men began his 
building " on the earth" just as he found it, and so at 
least he had the satisfaction of making a great show 
with it, and it may be he plumed himself on the skill 
with which he nicely adjusted his building to the 
surface of the ground as it was ; but the other " dig- 
ged deep." Not satisfied with lifting a spadeful here 
and there, he toiled, and descended deeper and deeper 
through the soil until he reached the rock, and laid his 
foundation there; and then, having found this, he 
patiently proceeded to raise course after course on his 
building above it. The same difference holds between 
the persons whom these builders represent. The mere 
professor rests upon his own righteousness in opposition 
to the sacrifice and righteousness of Christ — his benev- 
olence, liberality, morality; or upon the mercy of God 
irrespective of Christ's death ; or upon the union of 
his works with those of the Redeemer as the ground 
of his acceptance ; or upon the mere assumption of the 
name and forms of religion ; or on the public avowal 
of his faith, without respect to practical obedience to 
the Saviour. But the heaven-taught sinner has another 
foundation. Whatever may be the cost in the casting 
away of cherished earthly things, he digs down and 
passes through (he hard and all but impenetrable soil 



24 THE PARABLES OF JESUS. 

of a proud, a carnal and a self-righteous heart ; and he 
never ceases thus to do until he has found Christ as the 
strong Rock on which he may rest every hope for time 
and eternity. And when he has found him he shows 
that it was only to build upon him as the "only founda- 
tion." And thus we see the wondrous connection be- 
tween the disciple's work and his security. He shows 
that if he sought for Christ, it was that he might go 
after him, walk with him and be like him. He sur- 
rounds himself with all the fruits of righteousness, just 
as the wise builder raised stone over stone in his build- 
ing. He is seen and known by them ; he dwells in them. 
But it is not from them he derives his safety. It is 
not simply because they are there around him that he 
is safe and happy. The other builder, for that matter, 
had the same kinds of materials about him. No, no ! 
He hears the sayings of Jesus ; he does them. That is 
the evidence and proof of his faith, but it is not his 
hope. His hope rests on that chief Corner-stone, elect, 
precious, which the eternal God has laid in Zion. 

We see the buildings on which these men have ex- 
pended their time and strength, and in which they have 
trusted. They are complete, and scarcely can any differ- 
ence be discerned between them. Suddenly a mighty 
storm arises, and as the rain descends the foaming tor- 
rents rush from the mountain-heights, and a hurricane 
accompanies them. Amid the scene of wild confusion 
and devastation fix your gaze upon one of these edifices, 
and you see that it is immovable. It is exposed indeed 
to the fury of the blast and the mad waters rush around 
it, but it cannot be shaken, and its happy occupant sits 
sheltered and secure. And so God tells us it will be 
with the Christian. Storms may come, and storms will 



THE TWO BUILDERS. 25 

come — storms of sorrow and trial, and the still more 
dreadful storms of death and the judgment — but 
through all these he shall be un terrified, unmoved. 
Nothing can harm him, because he is resting on the 
Rock of Ages. Trouble may " come in as a flood," and 
persecution and temptation may add to its shock, but he 
shall neither be overthrown nor shaken. "It fell not." 

Turn now to the other building, to learn whether its 
strength is equally enduring and its destiny equally pro- 
pitious. See the wavering roof, the trembling pillars, 
the tottering structure ; it falls, its basis is swept away, 
and nothing is left to sustain it. It has become one heap 
of ruins ; its beautiful form, its elevated walls, its com- 
modious rooms are all lost in one utter desolation. Is 
this all ? Look beneath this rubbish, listen to the wail 
that rises above the howling of the tempest. It is the 
dying shriek of that building's inhabitant. In it he 
was reclining in calmness and security, but in a moment 
liis expectations and prospects were swept away. In 
the storm, when lie had most need of the building in 
which lie trusted, ii is serving to proclaim his folly and 
to cover him with death. And so God tells us it shall 
be with the self-deceiver, the nominal Christian. He 
may retain his false hope till the final hour, but then it 
will be tried and condemned. His self-delusion van- 
ishes; he feels it, but it is too late. The house is under- 
mined; the winds smile it and it falls. And oh what 
a fall ! It is sadden, it is unlooked for, it is irreparable, 
it is awful. What can be compared with it? The 
desolations of an earthquake, the mouldering cities of 
Babylon and Rome, the flaming temple at Jerusalem, — 
what are these hut trifles in comparison with ,-i soul 
homeless, unsheltered from avenging wrath, the time 

B 



26 THE PARABLES OF JESUS. 

for building gone, the means for building removed, the 
opportunity for building departed, aud the ability for 
building withdrawn !— all gone, for ever gone! 

Let him who is about to enter upon the Christian's 
work see that he begin that work well. Let him spare 
no pains to secure a good foundation. He is not a work- 
man called to work in order that he may be seen of man, 
but that " he may have praise of God." It is " unto the 
Lord, and not unto man," that he must labor ; what he 
does must be in "the name of the Lord Jesus" and to the 
glory and praise of God — " not unto himself, but unto 
Him who died and rose again." And all this must he do 
with " his might," and then let him patiently and hope- 
fully leave himself and his work in the Lord's hands. 

Reader ! how does your house — your spiritual build- 
j n g_stand ? Has it a foundation ? Is it on the Rock ? 
Look well to this matter. If you feel any doubt, begin 
again from the very base of the structure. Take the 
house all down and build it afresh, rather than run the 
risk of its being swept away. It will be too late to 
make it safe when the storm comes. Now, in this calm 
and quiet season, now, while yet you may, look well to 
the foundation on which your hope for eternity rests. 
Let nothing satisfy you but a true foundation in Christ, 
than whom " other foundation can no man lay." Thus 
may you be found among those who are doers of the 
word, and not hearers only, deceiving their own selves. 

"This, this is wisdom, manful and serene: 

Toward God all penitence, and prayer, and trust, 
But to the troubles of this shifting scene 
Simply courageous and sublimely just. 
Be, then, such wisdom thine, my heart within: 
There is no foe, nor woe, nor grief, but sin." 



^-THE* SOWER* 



1 Oft as thy word, O God, is east 
Like seed into the ground, 
Let the rich dews of heaven descend, 
And righteous fruits abound. 

Let not the ever-watehfui foe 

This holy seed remove, 
But give it root in every heart, 

To bring forth fruits of love. 

' Let not the world's deceitful cares 
The living Word destroy; 
But let it yield a hundredfold 
Of peace and faith and joy." 



j And he spake many things unto them in parables, saying, Behold, 

4 a sower went forth to sow ; And when he sowed, some seeds fell by 

5 the wayside, and the fowls came and devoured them tip : Some fell 
upon stony places, where they had not much earth: and forthwith they 

6 sprung up, because they had no deepness of earth : And when the 
sun was up, they were scorched; and because they had no root, they 

7 withered away. And some fell among thorns ; and the thorns 

8 'sprung up, and choked them. : But other fell into good ground, and 
brought forth fruit, some an hundred-fold, some sixty-fold, some thirty- 

q fold. 'Who hath ears to hear, let him hear. 

Matt. xiii. 3-8, 18-23 See also Mark iv. 3-8, 
14-20; Luke viii. 5-8, 11-15. 

28 



THE SOWER. 



A FTER Jerusalem, Bethlehem and Nazareth, no part 
-*--*- of Palestine so abounds in interesting associations 
as the Sea of Galilee, now the " Bahr Tubariyeh." In 
the Saviour's time it was the scene of busy life ; its bor- 
ders were thickly populated; fortresses, cities, towns and 
villages were to be seen all around it ; and its surface was 
enlivened with numerous boats passing and repassing 
with passengers and goods, while the fishermen launch- 
ed forth to cast their nets in its waters. The shores were 
everywhere cultivated, and offered numerous delightful 
gardens, fragrant vineyards and shaded retreats, while 
numerous people, busy, or unoccupied, were passing to 
and fro, and on every side were heard the noise of the 
in ill-stones, the lowing of the herds upon the hillsides, 
the voices of men calling to each other, the joyous shouts 
of happy children and the sound of the song and the 
harp. But now an air of silence, loneliness and desola- 
tion hangs over this entire locality. And yet, notwith- 
standing the sad contrast which it presents with its past 
condition and aspect, to the Christian traveler there is 
no more interesting region <>n the map of the globe, nor 
is there any water which is surveyed by him with such 
emotions a- thai of Gennesaret. 

This feeling in regard f<» (his sea, variously called tin; 

3 • 2fl 



30 THE PARABLES OF JESUS. 

Sea of Galilee, of Tiberias and of Gennesaret, is well 
expressed by the gifted and sainted M'Cheyne: 

"How pleasant to me thy deep blue wave, 
( ) Sea of Galilee ! 
For the glorious One who came to save 
Hath often stood by thee. 

"Fair are the lakes in the land I love, 
Where pine and heather grow, 
But thou hast loveliness far above 
What Nature can bestow. 

"It is not that the wild gazelle 
Gomes down to drink thy tide, 
But He that was pierced to save from hell 
Oft wandered by thy side. 

" It is not that the fig tree grows, 
And palms, in thy soft air, 
But that Sharon's fair and bleeding Kose 
Once spread its fragrance there. 

" Graceful around thee the mountains meet, 
Thou calm reposing sea ; 
But, ah, far more ! the beautiful feet 
Of Jesus walked o'er thee. 

"Those days are past. Bethsaida, where? 
Chorazin, where art thou ? 
His tent the wild Arab pitches there, 
The wild reeds shade thy brow. 

" Tell me, ye mouldering fragments, tell, 
Was the Saviour's city here ? 
Lifted to heaven, has it sunk to hell, 
With none to shed a tear ? 

u Ah, would my flock from thee might learn 
How days of grace will flee, 
How all an offered Christ who spurn 
Shall mourn at last, like thee ! 



THE SOWER. 31 

"And was it beside this very sea, 
The new-risen Saviour said 
Three times to Simon, ' Lovest thou me ? 
My lambs and sheep then feed.' 

"O Saviour! gone to God's right hand! 
Yet the same Saviour still, 
Graved on thy heart is this lovely strand 
And every fragrant hill. 

" Oh, give me, Lord, by this sacred wave, 
Threefold thy love divine, 
That I may feed, till I find my grave, 
Thy flock — both thine and mine." 

On the shore of this lake a multitude were assembled 
to listen to the great Teacher. A certain divine author- 
ity, strangely combined with the tenderest human sym- 
pathy, marked his discourses to the " common people " 
especially, as entirely different from all that they had 
been accustomed to hear in the synagogue, and therefore 
they " heard him gladly." At this time, probably, as 
on another occasion, the crowd pressed upon the Saviour, 
so that he found it convenient to enter into a boat. 
When, by a few strokes of the oars in John's or Peter's 
hands, the boat is shot a short way out, he turns to 
address the multitude who throng the shore, sitting or 
standing, tier above tier, on its shelving sides. How 
grand the scene! Lighted by the sun, its roof heaven's 
own lofty dome, its walls the hills that girdle the lake, 
which, shining like a mirror, lay still and quiet at its 
Maker's feet, — what edifice of man's ever offered preacher 
such a noble temple ! 

The immense multitude which covered the beach 
were chiefly peasantry, whom curiosity (<» hear so 
eminenf a prophef had allured from all parts of the 



32 THE PARABLES OF JESUS. 

adjacent country. Jesus well knew that bo would 
obtain the most ready access, as well as render more 
lasting service, by leading their thoughts homeward to 
things with which they were well acquainted. To them 
all the various processes of husbandry, the anxious toils 
of seed-time and harvest, the imperceptible growth of 
vegetation and the efforts of domestic industry, were 
subjects, not of knowledge merely, but of lively and 
habitual interest, and this was calculated to give perpetu- 
ity to any moral impression of which they were made the 
associating principle. In the attire of such rural imagery, 
therefore, Jesus set forth in this parable and the three 
which follow it the instructions he deemed most useful 
to the spiritual state and wants of those country hearers. 
Eeferring especially to this parable of the Sower, a 
recent traveler writes : " Is there anything on the spot 
to suggest the image thus conveyed ? So I asked as I 
rode along the track under the hillside by which the 
Plain of Gennesaret is approached. The thought had 
hardly occurred to me when a slight recess in the hill- 
side close upon the plain disclosed at once in detalL and 
with a conjunction which I remember nowhere else in 
Palestine, every feature of the great parable. There 
was the undulating corn-field descending to the water's 
edge. There was the trodden pathway running through 
the midst of it, with no fence to prevent the seed from 
falling here and there on either side of it or upon it, 
itself hard with the constant tramp of horse and mule 
and human feet. There was the good rich soil which 
distinguishes the whole of that plain and its neighbor- 
hood from the bare hills elsewhere descending into the 
lake, and which, where there is no interruption, pro- 
duces one vast mass of corn. There was the rocky 



THE SOWER. 33 

ground of the hillside protruding here and there 
through the corn-fields as elsewhere through the glossy 
slopes. There were large bushes of thorn, the ' Nubk ' 
— that kind of which, tradition says, the crown of 
thorns was woven — springing up in the very midst of 
the waving wheat." 

Two considerations invest this parable with special 
interest and importance : 1 . Its prophetic character. It 
predicts the reception the Christian religion will meet 
with in the world. It might have been thought that a 
system of truth so pure and heavenly as the gospel, so 
calculated to make men happy in themselves and in the 
enjoyment of God's favor, would be at once embraced 
and held fast by all. Our Lord knew men's hearts too 
well to think thus, and that knowledge must have been 
indeed divine by which he saw that all hearers of his 
word to the end of time would find their portraits in 
one or other of the characters here drawn, and that in- 
stances of all the four classes would be found in every 
new generation. 

2. The particular desire of the disciples to have the 
parable explained, and the great pains the Saviour took 
to explain it. It is not indeed too much to affirm that 
he seems to have considered it as the fundamental par- 
able, the one on the right understanding of which 
would depend his disciples' comprehension of all which 
were to follow. Hardly less than this can be inferred 
from his Inquiry: "Know ye not this parable? and 
how then will ye know all parables?" In full har- 
mony with this view is the fad observable in no other 
discourse of our Lord, thai this parable both begins and 
end-- with a distinct call to hear, to hearken. 

Jesus is ih< true and great Sower of the seed. He 



34 THE PARABLES OF JESUS. 

came " forth " from God, and from the storehouse of 
infinite beneficence and wisdom and life, to sow this 
earth with the seeds of truth and holiness and joy — 
seeds of love that shall produce conviction, and seeds of 
gospel that shall produce responsive gratitude, joy and 
love. Others were able to sow only because he had 
sown first ; they did but carry on the work which he 
had begun. Yet every preacher of the gospel is also 
a sower of the seed. When such an one enters the 
pulpit it may be said as truly as on the day when 
Jesus was the preacher and a boat the pulpit, " Behold, 
a sower went forth to sow.'' Xor is the work of drop- 
ping the precious seed into human hearts wherever an 
opening may appear, confined to those who, being trained 
to it and freed from other cares, may thereby be capable 
of conducting it on a larger scale. As every leaf of the 
forest and every ripple on the lake which itself receives 
a sunbeam on its breast may throw the sunbeam off 
again, and so spread the light around, in like manner 
every one, old or young, who receives Christ, into his 
heart may and will publish with his life and lips that 
blessed name. 

The seed to be sown is " the word of the kingdom ;" 
therefore, not merely what God has spoken in general, 
but pre-eminently his gospel, his gracious message by 
Christ, Ids testimony and invitations concerning the 
kingdom of heaven. The seed belongs to the sower — 
it is Christ's. Luke expressly calls it "his seed." It 
is the property of Him who was himself the seminal 
word which he communicated. Thus the Lord, it will 
be remembered, defines the place and value of the 
Scriptures: "They are they which testify of me" 
Christ is the living Seed, and the Bible holds it. 



THE SOWER 35 

There is life in a seed. Dry and dead as it seems, let 
it be planted with a diamond, and while the one re- 
mains a stone, the other will awake, and, bursting its 
shell, rise from the ground to adorn the earth with 
beauty, perfume the air with fragrance or enrich men 
with its fruit. There is force in a seed. Buried in the 
ground, it does not remain inert, but forces its way up- 
ward, and with a power quite remarkable in a soft, 
green, feeble blade, pushes aside the dull clods that 
cover it. "So," says an old divine, "the word hath in 
it a productive virtue to bring forth fruit according to 
its kind; that is, the fruit of a new life — not only a new 
habitude and fashion of life without, but a new nature, 
a new kind of life within, new thoughts, a new estimate 
of things, new delights and actions." 

The husbandman's life is one of various toils and great 
fatigue. With him every season has its appointed work, 
and is so much a season of labor as to leave but short 
intervals for relaxation, and none for idleness. From the 
commencement of Ids public instructions to the very close 
of hi> life our blessed Lord preached incessantly to the 
people. Whether they were assembled by thousands, or 
whether two or three individuals were met together on 
boat, on shore or field or hillside, he omitted no oppor- 
tunities of declaring the will of Him that sent him. In 
his estimation, the magnificent temple and the obscure cot- 
tage were equally sacred when that instruction was to be 
imparted by which men were to be made wise unto sal- 
vation. The gospel minister who imitates the example 
of Jesus will find no time to be idle. 

We should carefully observe the great truth presented 
in the parable by the diverse soils on which the ^rvd was 
cast — that God soweth everywhere, that he willeth that. 



3G THE PARABLES OF JESUS. 

"all should conic bo the knowledge of the truth." As 
in that wondrous and beauteous panorama of natural 
scenery stretching before the Saviour's eye in the land 
of Gennesaret there was every variety of soil, so in the 
world of human hearts and homes was there every vari- 
ety of condition and rank, disposition and character. But 
the Sower w'as to sow all the soil ; the gospel was to be 
preached to every creature. If the scattered seed bore 
no produce, the fault was not God's, the shortcoming 
rested not with the Sower, but with the ungracious soil 
of the human heart. He would have none to perish 
unwarned. 

The title which the Germans give this parable is Tlie 
Four Kinds of Ground; and as its central idea is the 
reception the Christian religion will meet with in the 
world, this title is, we think, more correct than that with 
which in our language it is associated. 

In the East in many places there are no roads except 
beaten tracks through the middle of the fields, and conse- 
quently the grain that falls along the course of these, if 
not previously picked up by the birds, is soon trampled 
and dies under the feet of the passengers. 

li Wayside hearers" are those whose minds, like the 
beaten highroad, are hard and impenetrable an 1 inac- 
cessible to conviction. Such are the persons who have 
imbibed early prejudices against Christianity, and who, 
either conceiving themselves superior to the rest of man- 
kind in genius, knowledge and penetration, reject with 
scorn whatever the bulk of mankind receives with ven- 
eration, and erect systems of their own which they con- 
ceive to be the very perfection of human wisdom ; or, 
on the other hand, having been unfortunately very early 
initiated in the writings <>f modern skeptics, adopt the 



THE SOWER. 37 

opinions of those whom they consider as the great lumi- 
naries of the age, accept ridicule as argument and asser- 
tion as proof, and prefer the silly witticisms, the specious 
sophistry, the metaphysical subtlety, the coarse buffoonery 
which distinguish many of the most popular opponents 
of our faith, to the simplicity, dignity and sublimity of 
the divine truths of the gospel. 

Careless hearers are embraced in this class. Such are 
they whose hearts, like this ground, are hard and cold, 
not in a state to receive the word. They have come to 
the place where it is preached ; perhaps they were obliged 
to come, perhaps they came because it is respectable to 
come, or because they would not have felt easy in staying 
away. But they did not come in a spirit of prayer. They 
did not come for the good of their souls. They did not 
come to hear God's message to them. It is astonishing 
to think how commonly the imagination of such persons 
is suffered to carry them away from their proper busi- 
nea — hearing. Instead of a serious regard to the truths 
which the minister delivers, they indulge their minds in 
schemes of worldly business or they are pursuing some 
plan of future pleasure. 

Then there are speculating hearers, who study re- 
ligion as other men do mathematics — either to gratify 
curiosity and love of discovery, or because they hope 
to render it subservient to worldly interest and reputa- 
tion, or vainly imagine that a sound creed is the one 
thing needful, the sure and only passport to heaven. 
These persons are often very severe on blind Pharisees 
who think to b< Baved by a form of godliness, but they 
cannol see thai a form of knowledge is equally worthless, 
and far more dangerous, because it produces a more des- 
perate kind of pride and self-preference, for "knowledge 



38 THE PARABLES OF JESUS. 

puffeth up." Akin to these are captious hearers. They 
go to the sanctuary on purpose to criticise, to discover 
their own acuteness by detecting some error of the 
preacher. They sock for nothing but the bran or the 
chaff, and this alone they carry away. They mean 
not to learn, much less to practice. 

When husbandmen are sowing, thousands of birds 
will cover the ground in Palestine, and levy a heavy 
contribution on the grain thrown into the furrows. 
" The fowls of the air came and devoured them up" 
When the seeds of truth are scattered upon hearts hard- 
ened by selfishness and evil passions, they either rebound 
or are borne away by the evil one as soon as they fall. 
They " understand not the word " — that is, they do not 
appreciate its excellence and the necessity of their im- 
mediately receiving and keeping it. They know so 
little of its value that they suffer it to lie exposed to 
the first temptation, or, as Luke says, to be " trodden 
down." The heart becomes indurated by hearing a 
gospel which it does not carry into life. The very 
repetition increases insensibility. The kingdom of 
darkness fights against the kingdom of God, which 
is built up within us through the word of God. Mod- 
ern Ritualists may talk loudly of their forms and cere- 
monies, of their fonts and their altars, their crucifixes 
and their candles, while they sneer at Bibliolatry and 
" preaching the word." But Satan knows better than 
they. He will give them all these things, and make 
them heartily welcome to much more too, if they will 
only allow him to snatch away the word, as seed after 
seed of it falls upon the heart by the wayside, for be 
well knows that all these things have never saved, and 
can never save, a soul. But he knows equally we!) 



THE SO WEB. 39 

that the word received into the heart is followed by be- 
lieving " unto salvation." 

Xotice precisely why it is that the truth in the " way- 
side hearers " is not effectual to their salvation. It is 
not the fault of the seed, for that is the very same that 
is dropped into those who bring forth the fruits of faith. 
Neither is it the fault of the sower, for though there 
are men of different abilities, yet the saving reception 
of the word does not depend on that. Where, then, does 
the fault lie ? In a heart unsoftened, exposed to every 
evil influence till it has become hard as a pavement. 
Felix, the •Roman governor, was a specimen of the 
trodden wayside. His heart, worn by the cares of 
business and the pleasures of sin passing alternately 
in great volume over it, presented no opening for the 
entrance of the gospel. Hence Paul, when called to 
preach before him, did not in the first instance pour 
out the simple, positive message of mercy, but reasoned 
of righteousness, temperance, and judgment to come, 
thus plying the seared conscience with the terrors of 
the Lord in the hop< — which, alas ! proved vain — of 
breaking thereby the covering crust and preparing a 
seed-bed lor the word of life. 

Are we, then, to despair of the salvation of all those 
persons who remain unmoved under a ministry of 
mercy? As far as man's agency is concerned the an- 
swer to this question is obvious. But it must be re- 
membered thai nothing is impossible to God. He who 
can raise the dead in churchyards can waken the dead 
in churches. " Lo, I am with you alway," says Jesus, 
'•even unto the end <>f the world." This promise is 
the soul of hope and (he life of preaching. How know 
the heralds of the gospel thai it may nol l>e with man) 



40 THE PARABLES OF JESUS. 

hardened sinners under their ministry as it was with the 
jailer of Philippi? His heart was rent as well as his 
prison/ and over the openings, while they were fresh, 
the skillful sower dropped the vital seed: "Believe on 
the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved ;" and 
the word entered, and its entrance gave life. 

" Let those that sow in sadness wait 
Till the fair harvest come ; 
They shall confess their sheaves are great, 
And shout the blessings home. 

" Though seed lie buried long in dust, • 
It sha'n't deceive their hope ; 
The precious grain can ne'er be lost, 
For grace ensures the crop." 

The " stony places" mentioned by Matthew arc to be 
explained by the "rock" in Luke. A soil mingled 
with stones is not meant, for these would not certainly 
hinder the roots from striking deeply downward, as 
those roots, with the instinct which they possess, would 
feel and find their way, penetrating between the inter- 
stices of the stones, and would so reach the moisture 
below. But what is meant is ground where a thin 
coating of mould covered the surface of a rock, which 
presented an impassable barrier, rendering it wholly 
impossible that the roots should penetrate beyond a 
certain depth. 

Here is indicated a different state of heart from that 
we have just considered. "Forthwith they sprung up, 
because they had no deepness of earth." Quickly up, 
they as quickly disappear. True in Nature as in grace. 
The rock under a thin layer of earth may, by the heat 
which it reflects, stimulate the seed into a rapid growth. 



THE SOWER. 41 

The heart which remains unconverted is just that 
which, if there be a momentary interest in religion, 
will make the most striking show of its feelings and 
emotions. It will stimulate the growth of outward 
seeming with amazing rapidity. "Hath not root in 
himself," no settled, fixed principles in his judgment, 
no firm resolution in his will, no rooted habits in 
his affections — nothing firm that will be either the 
sap or the strength of his profession. The effect of 
the word upon him is superficial, transient, evanescent. 
It will be observed that whilst the miscarriage of the 
first hearer is ascribed to direct diabolical influence, 
here Satan cannot merely come and take the word out 
of the heart without further trouble, and hence he 
brings some hostile influences to bear against it — " trib- 
ulation or persecution," outward and inward trials. 

The persons here represented constitute that class of 
hearers in our churches who are susceptible of strong 
and lively emotions. Not like the preceding class, 
who arc careless and apathetic, they enjoy a preached 
gospel. They are delighted with oratory, good language 
and graceful delivery; they admire the flights of a fine 
and vigorous imagination, or perhaps they are pleased 
with close reasoning or the discussions of an acute 
logician. They gratify themselves, however, by hear- 
ing preachers whose talents suit their tastes, whatever 
those may be. This employment sometimes agreeably 
fills up a vacant hour which might otherwise be tedious, 
and they endwre even the truth for the sake of the 
maimer in which it is delivered. Such persons attended 
Ezekiel. " Lo, thou art to them/' said the Lord to his 
prophet, "as a very lovely song of one thai hath a 
pleasant voice, and can play well on an instrument • 



42 THE PARABLES OF JESUS. 

for they hear my words, but they do them not." Noth- 
ing- is more deceptive than the influence of taste and 
sensibility in religion. Men may be thrilled with the 
grand themes which lie within its compass, resolutions 
of new obedience maybe formed, the church may be left 
with a tear in the eye ; but then, after all, it is only sur- 
face-work, superficial , shallow impression. It has sprung 
up under the stimulating heat of excitement, and expends 
itself in emotional feeling. 

Let there be no misunderstanding here. Our Lord, 
in representing the stony-ground hearer as "receiving 
the word with joy," does not mean to check the glad 
hearing of divine truth. The gospel of salvation, the 
free offer, the sure promise, — these constitute the happiest 
tidings to which mortal ear can listen. Let the word, then, 
be heard with gladness. Let no cold caution be suffered 
to quench the rising flame. Only let us not forget that 
in order that the word may be heard with real and 
permanent gladness there must be repentance of our 
sins. Christians may feel different degrees of grief, but 
they all grieve. Those who have felt no godly sorrow 
will easily be induced to return to the world ; they will 
never consent to make any great sacrifice for Christ. 
Like the stony-ground hearer, into whose calculation 
trials and suffering did not enter, they take from the 
gospel only what is light, not what is otherwise. They 
are like Herod, who heard John gladly as long as John 
did not touch the darling passion that he cherished in 
his heart. Had the truth been well rooted, it would 
have endured, but here it withered. 

Young persons too often come under the class now 
in view. They quickly take up a profession, are rest- 
less till they are known to be among the Saviour's 



THE SOWER. 43 

followers, look down perhaps on those who without 
any such show have yet been long going on quietly in 
the way of godliness, and, with much that the experi- 
enced Christian knows to be only another form of self- 
conceit and self-pleasing, do yet often show such buds 
and blossoms as promise well for fruit. But temptation 
comes, and they find that they have no root; their 
religion was only a notion in the head, not a principle 
rooted in the heart. The same sun, thus, that gives 
nutriment and progress to the seeds on one soil, with- 
ers and blasts the young plants that grow upon the 
other. 

The first disciples and first preachers of the gospel 
were exposed to the severest trials. Some who had not 
sufficient root in themselves gave way to the storms 
that assailed them, but others stood firm and unmoved 
amidst the most tremendous dangers, and underwent 
with unparalleled fortitude the most excruciating tor- 
ments. Happily, we live in a country where Chris- 
tianity pervades the nation, but faith must nevertheless 
have it- trials, and "all who live godly in Christ Jesus" 
must have a portion of persecution. If we are deter- 
mined not to comply with the fashions and vanities of 
the world, we may rest assured that we shall meet with 
opposers, our profession will be sorely tried, and if there 
be no root this hot sun will wither our sapless stalk 
and we shall become barren and unfruitful. Experience 
shows that a sneer from some leading spirit in a literary 
society, or a laugh raised by a gay circle of pleasure- 
Beekers, or the rude jest of scoffing artisans in a work- 
shop, may do as much as the fagol and the stake to make 
a lair but false disciple deny his Lord. Where, however, 
there is true faith, Christ's people aeed not much dread 



44 THE PARABLES OF JESUS. 

trials. To borrow the figure here, the hotter the sun, if 
the heavens send it showers and the earth give it soil, 
the plant grows the taller and the stronger — grace grow- 
ing in converted hearts like corn in strong, deep, rich, 
well-watered soils. The warmer the summer the richer 
the harvest. 

There is more reality in the class of thorny-ground 
hearers than in either of the former. They do not with 
hardened hearts at once reject the word. On the con- 
trary, they are conscious of its great importance, and 
welcome it as something which they require. It pene- 
trates more deeply than in the other cases ; but, alas ! it 
is so mingled with other things which exercise an all- 
powerful sway over the feelings and affections that it is 
rendered useless and unprofitable. In other words, the 
seed fell in ground out of which the weeds and thistles 
were not extirpated. There were plenty of soil, abun- 
dance of softening showers and genial sunbeams, but the 
weeds grew up faster than the grain, till by their rank 
luxuriance and overshadowing branches they choked the 
good seed. "In th'e East," says Jamieson, "thorn-hedges 
were, and still are, cultivated as fences for the fields, and 
as the principal object in rearing them is to secure the 
crops from the depredations of the Arabs, they are sel- 
dom pruned, but are allowed to grow in wild luxuriance 
till they spread to a considerable extent over the extrem- 
ities of every field." 

The people here represented hear the word, are arrest- 
ed, touched, convinced, persuaded. They acknowledge 
that they are sinners, they see that Christ is the only 
Saviour, they feel the value of their souls and they de- 
sire to lead a religious life, but their affections are drawn 
off from God by worldly things. They do not abandon 



THE SOWER. 45 

their profession through fear of persecution, but, while 
they continue to make a profession of religion, are en- 
slaved by the love of the world. " The care of this 
world and the deceitfulness of riches/' "the lusts of 
other things entering in" and "pleasures of this life," 
"choke the word, and he becometh unfruitful." Let us 
look separately at the principal antagonists to the effica- 
cious working of the divine word which are here speci- 
fied by the Redeemer. 

There is no necessary antagonism between the claims 
of earth and heaven. The weight of a clock seems a 
heavy drag on the delicate movements of its machinery, 
but, so far from arresting or inrpeding those movements, 
it is indispensable to their steadiness, balauce and accu- 
racy. The plauets in the heavens have a twofold mo- 
tion — in their orbits and on their axes ; the one motion 
not interfering, but carried on simultaneously and in 
perfect harmony, with the other; so man's twofold 
activities — around the heavenly and the earthly centre 
— need not disturb nor jar each other. He who dili- 
gently discharges the duties of the earthly, may not 
dulously, may at the same moment, fulfill those 
of the heavenly sphere; at once "diligent in business" 
and "fervent in spirit, serving the Lord." But whilst 
it is true that a proper diligence in the world is justifiable, 
and even commendable, it may not be denied that men's 
pursuit of their secular vocations may prove disastrous 
to their spiritual interests. Experience, indeed, shows 
thai in many cases it does. They get too much absorbed 
in things out of themselves. Their works, projects, pro- 
fessions, grow to an unnatural importance, and encroach 
upon nil their thoughts. They become fond of the mere 
energy and habit of business. Dexterity, skill, foresight, 



46 THE PARABLES OF JESUS. 

calculation, become things pleasant in themselves, and 
are enjoyed for their own sakes. Thus it comes to pass 
that as the things with which they are surrounded thrust 
themselves between their souls and the realities uns< en — 
drop like a veil over the faint outlines of the invisible 
world and hide it from their eyes — the spiritual sensibil- 
ities that are in them grow inert and lose their virtue by 
the dullness of inaction. They become forgetful of their 
own interior life by allowing their aims, measures, rules, 
to be of an external character. They become anxious, 
craving, sensitive, impatient, amid the disappointments, 
fears, uncertainties, competitions, of the world, and thus 
chafed, agitated and preyed upon by the fretting of un- 
rest, they are far removed from the calm, inward shining 
of the love of God. Little by little dullness creeps over 
their souls, marked by no great changes; much as the 
dimness of the natural sight, which must reach to an 
advanced point before it is detected to be more than a 
passing film. 

As " the care of this world " designates care for our 
present livelihood, the pressure of an earthly existence 
— every care, indeed, which has not some tendency to 
piety and the worship of God, even though it be not 
mixed up with what is positively prohibited — so the 
deceit fulness of riches represents the glittering side of 
this life with those who are in quest of riches and those 
who already have them, because both look upon them 
as the highest good and put their confidence in them. 
What an affecting example have we of this class — the 
choking of the seed, the unfruitfulness and the condem- 
nation — in the case of Ananias and Sapphira, who 
"kept back part of the price" and "lied unto Cod"! 
Consider avarice in itself', and nothing appears more 



THE SOWER. 47 

base and contemptible ; yet, dragging along- with it the 
ideas of power, place and security, it changes its na- 
ture and becomes a provident provision. This is one 
species of that deceit which sin obtrudes upon its 
votaries, in which it is assisted by the very nature 
of sin itself. 

In this feature of the third class in the parable what 
a living protest have we against the great crying sin 
of our day ! Men of promise and high aspirations, 
men of religions training and religious profession, be- 
come seized with the accursed thirst for gold, bartering 
health, morals, principle, social ties, life itself, in this 
demon-scramble. The cold-blooded murders and vil- 
-lain-phmderings of the street and the highway, per- 
petrated by the dregs of society, are not one whit more 
heinous in the sight of God than are the polished coun- 
terparts of social and individual baseness, where the 
betrayal of high trust or the delirium of wild specula- 
tion 1ms embittered the widow's tears, defrauded the 
orphan of his bread and left happy firesides stripped 
and desolate. Well did lie who knew the human heart 
denounce " covetoumess " as "idolatry." Depend upon 
it, God will visit our land and our time with judgment 
if this usurping Dagon be not hurled from its throne. 
It is this mammon-spirit which, in the case of all an- 
cient nations, formed the first symptom of decadence 
and decrepitude, the first impelling wave which rose 
to a wild deluge of ruin. God keep us from the verge 
of this engulfing whirlpool, and tune our lips more 
and more to the music and spirit of the prayer of 
honest, contented, unostentatious frugality, "Give me 
neither poverty nor riches; feed me with food con- 
venient for me " ! 



48 THE PARABLES OF JESUS. 

"But should my destiny be quest of wealth, 
Kind Heaven, oh keep my tempted soul in health! 
And shouldst thou bless my toil with ample store, 
Keep back the madness that would seek for more." 

Overlook not the expressions " the lusts of other things 
entering in "—that is, with the seed ; and " the thorns 
sprung up with it" and "choked it" — that is, ren- 
dered it feeble and attenuated, destroying its vigor 
and covering the life with the seeds of vanity. The 
very knocking at the door of the heart by the preach- 
ing of the word often opens it to the entering in of 
these " other things." Men warm for a little moment 
at the sound of the gospel, and then the rein is given 
to their desires. The natural heart takes alarm, and 
soon drowns thought and anxiety for the future by 
"the cares, the riches and the pleasures of the present." 
We are not to understand that only the mere sensualist 
or man of fashion is here referred to, but even the man of 
science and letters, the admirer and cultivator of the ele- 
gant arts or accomplishments; for personal pleasure may 
be intellectual as well as bodily, and only a more refined 
species of the love of self and sense in general. What- 
ever be the idol of a man's heart, it is still some favorite 
creature of his own choice and selection, and in devoting 
himself to it he is still studying his own pleasure, find- 
ing both its beginning and its consummation within the 
limits of this world; and hence he too must be ranged 
with those in whose hearts the seed has been stifled, or 
is liable to be stifled, by " the lusts of other things 
entering in " and by the " pleasures of this life." 

GOOD-GROUND HEAREES. 
It will be observed that in the classes mentioned 



THE SOWER. 19 

there is progression. The first rejects at once ; the 
second, not so speedily ; the third, still less so. The 
fourth brings forth fruit. Not all the seed which is 
sown perishes. The spiritual husbandman is to sow in 
hope, knowing that he will not always sow in vain — 
that a part will prosper. 

The peculiarities of the good-ground bearers are as 
follows: 1. They have "an honest and good heart" a 
heart unlike those of the hearers mentioned before — 
not careless, unstable or worldly, but sincere, desirous 
to know the truth, and resolved to follow it, humble 
and teachable. In the full sense of the words, how- 
ever, "an honest and good heart" must mean a heart 
renewed by grace, a heart which the Holy Spirit 
has prepared to receive the seed of the word. It is 
not intimated by the parable that the Husbandman 
finds any good ground in us; the ground, like the tree 
in another analogical lesson of our Lord, is not good 
until it is made good. " It is," says an able commen- 
tator, " beyond the scope of this parable to explain how 
the ground is rendered soft and kept free from thorns. 
The Teacher was content in this lesson to tell us what 
the good ground produces; we must discover elsewhere 
in the Scriptures whence, its goodness is derived. . . . 
The similitude from Nature is no longer applicable to 
the mystery of the kingdom ; as a parable, it has already 
reached its limits when the truth goes beyond the sim- 
ilitude. There ia ;i miraculous seed, superior indeed to all 
natural seed — so powerful that by its growth it can and 
will choke all thorns. Nay more, il can also break through 
the rock in striking ifs roof down info the earth, and 
can make that to lie again a Held of God which was 
a way for the feel of the prince; of this world." 



50 THE PARABLES OF JESUS. 

2. They not only hear the word, but " understand " 
it— receive it in faith, obey it — and thus experience its 
power, and understand it always better and better; in 
which respects they are distinguished from the first class. 

3. They keep the word in a good heart, often med- 
itating on it by themselves, and laying it up in the 
deep recesses of the mind ; which constitutes their dis- 
tinction from the second class. 

4. They bring forth fruit ; in them are manifested the 
fruits of the Spirit. And they do this with patience, 
persevering with unshaken steadfastness against oppo- 
sition and difficulties, under the reproach of the world 
and in the storm of persecution • thus differing from the 
third class. 

Here let it be remembered that bringing forth 
fruit is the truest test of Christianity. 'The fruit is 
always the same substantially as the seed. The seed 
is holy ; the fruit must be holy also. If it be the seed 
of instruction, the understanding will be enlightened ; 
if the seed of comfort, the heart will be cheered ; if the 
seed of warning, care will be taken not to walk in the 
ways that are corrupt ; if the seed of example, steady 
and strenuous effort will be made to follow Christ and 
them that through faith have inherited the promises. 
If there be no fruit, there can be no Christianity; fruit 
is the test of the tree— character, the symbol of 
principle. And fruit in season, above all — that is, our 
life showing itself as Christian and victorious in that 
sphere or place in which God in his providence 1ms 
placed us— is precious. Such fruitfulness disarms all 
opposition, is the most eloquent credential of our creed, 
and strikes a world that will read our lives while it is 
determined not to read our Bibles. 



THE SOWER. 51 

Extraordinary as is the measure of increase of the seed 
cast into the ground fixed in the parable, it is not 
beyond the standard of produce in favorable climates. 
Pliny, after relating generally that the soil of Syria and 
Egypt yielded easily a hundred and fifty fold, informs 
us that from the Campus Buzacus in Africa there were 
sent on one occasion four hundred stalks to Augustus 
raised from one grain, and on another three hundred to 
Nero. Jouwett, speaking of some Indian corn that he 
saw growing in the Levant, says that he " counted the 
number of stalks which sprouted from a single grain of 
seed, carefully pulling to pieces each root in order to 
see that it was but one plant. The first had seven 
stalks, the next three, the next nine, then eighteen, then 
fourteen. Each stalk bore an ear. Even the wheat, 
which is so familiar a grain in our country, grows so 
luxuriantly in southern latitudes that, according to the 
testimony of the most respectable travelers, that which 
grows on Lebanon produces seventy-fold, while the six- 
sided barley yields thirty." 

"Some an hundred-fold," says Jesus, "some sixty, 
some thirty." While all the ground that was broken 
<]<•<•]> and clean in spring and summer bears fruit in 
harvest, some portions produce a larger return than 
others. The picture in this feature is true to Nature, 
and the fact in the spiritual sphere corresponds. There 
are diversities in the Spirit's operation, diversities in 
natural gifts bestowed on men at. first, diversities in the 
amount <>(' energy exerted by believers as fellow-workers 
with * <<»< I in their own sai unification, and diversities ac- 
eordingly in the fruitfulness which results in the life of 
Christians. The Saviour, it, will he noticed, in speak- 
ing of those who upon receiving the sfa\ <>f (lie gospel 



52 THE PARABLES OF JESUS. 

brought forth in different measures, yet allows them all 
to be good ground. He also elsewhere declares him to 
be " a good and faithful servant " who had improved 
his talents into five, as well as he who had improved his 
into ten. Hence it is evident that the gospel does not 
judge of our state by the degrees, but by the reality, 
of our righteousness. While all believers are safe in 
Christ, each should covet the best gifts. 

" If any man have ears to hear, let him hear." Such 
are the solemn words with which Jesus closed the par- 
able. It is as though he had said, " I have delivered 
many tilings in your presence, and ye have done well 
in hearing them. But my preaching is not to be view- 
ed as an entertainment. My doctrine is not designed to 
amuse the mind, to gratify curiosity, to furnish a num- 
ber of lifeless speculations. Hearing is only instru- 
mental to something else; there is a duty of greater im- 
portance still remaining." What is that duty? What 
would our Saviour say in explanation of his command? 
What has he said in other parts of his word? "Mix 
faith with it. Let not the sense leave the mind as soon 
as the sound leaves the ear. Remember it. Enliven 
it by meditation. Reduce it into feelings and actions. 
Fear these denunciations; embrace these promises; obey 
these commands ; walk according to this rule." 



♦THE*TAR£&- 



1 Like the detested tribe 

Of ancient Pharisees, beneath the mask 
Of clamorous piety what numbers veil 
Contaminated, vicious hearts I How many 
In the devoted temple of their God, 
With hypocritic eye, from which the tear 
Of penitential anguish seems to flow, 
Pour forth their vows, and by affected zeal 
Pre-eminent devotion boast, while vice 
Within the guilty breast rankles unseen!" 

.53 



24 Another parable put he forth unto them, saying, The kingdom of 
heaven is likened unto a man which so-wed good seed in his field : 

25 But while men slept, his enemy came and sowed tares among the 

26 wheat, and went his way. But when the blade was sprung up, and 

27 brought forth fruit, then appeared the tares also. So the servants of 
the householder came and said unto him, Sir, didst not thou so~w good 

28 seed in thy field ? from -whence then hath it tares? He said unto 
them, An enemy hath done this. The servants said unto him, Wilt 

29 thou then that we go and gather them up ? But lie said, Nay ; lest 
while ye gather up the tares, ye root tip also the -wheat with them. 

30 Let both grow together until the harvest : and in the time of harvest 
I will say to the reapers, Gather ye together first the tares, and bind 
them in bundles to burn them : but gather the wheat into my barn. 

36 Then Jesus sent the multitude away, and went into the house : and 
his disciples came unto him, saying, Declare unto us the parable of 

37 the tares of the field. He answered and said unto them, He that 

38 soweth good seed is the Son of man ; The field is the world ; the 
good seed are the children of the kingdom : but the tares are the chil- 

30 dren of the wicked one ; The enemy that sowed them is the devil ; 
the harvest is the end of the world ; and the reapers are the angels. 

40 As therefore the tares are gathered and burned in the fire ; so shall 

41 it be in the end of this -world. The Son of man shall send forth his 
angels, and they shall gather out of his kingdom all things that offend, 

42 and them which do iniquity ; And shall cast them info a furnace of 
43 fire: there shall be -wailing and gnashing of teeth. Then shall the 

righteous shine forth as the sun in the kingdom of their Father. 
Who hath ears to hear, let him hear. 

Matt. xiii. 24-30 ; 36-43. 
54 



THE TARES. 



rriHE cultivator of the soil in Eastern countries was, 
-*- and still is, subjected to a peculiar annoyance. In 
lands where there is a well-established state of society 
the husbandman has no further anxiety about his seed 
after it is committed to the bosom of the earth, but 
lives in tranquil hope that should Heaven bestow its 
kindly influences to crown the labors of the year noth- 
ing can come between him and a happy harvest-home. 
Far otherwise is it with the Oriental husbandman, to 
whom the whole season from the moment the seed is 
prepared for the. ground till the grain is gathered into 
the barn is a time of anxiety, experience having proved 
that he holds the produce of his field by a very pre- 
carious tenure unless he can secure it against other 
influences besides those of an inclement sky. Not the 
least of the dangers referred to arises from the arts of 
some secret enemy to ruin the crop by intermingling 
with it noxious weeds. 

In the fact just stated we find the basis of the parable; 
which is now to be considered, and the main design of 
which is to exhibit the kingdom in its relation to the 
wicked one, who endeavors by cunning stratagem to 
destroy it, just as the design of the parable of the Sower 
which immediately precedes is to exhibit the kingdom 



56 THE PARABLES OF JESUS. 

in its relation to unbelieving men, who, in various 
forms and with various measures of aggravation, ulti- 
mately reject it. 

As "he that soweth the good seed is the Son of 
man," it is evident that the parable does not refer gene- 
rally to the contest ever going on in the world between 
good and evil, but specially to those manifestations of it 
which have taken place since the divine power of Jesus 
Christ began to be displayed in the kingdom founded 
by him. 

* The field is the world;" that is, the field was the 
world before the seed was sown — the out-field in which 
no preparatory process had been begun, but on being 
ploughed, cultivated, hedged and sown that part of 
the world became the separated district, the sequestered 
and consecrated place ; in short, what we call the vis- 
ible Church. This seems plain from the very nature 
of the description contained in the parable, for it is 
nothing new to discover that good and bad are in the 
world, nor is the possibility of a desire to root out the 
bad and separate them from the good at all inconceiv- 
able to any who have watched the world's plans of self- 
regeneration ; but it is a new and striking announce- 
ment, and to some an incredible one, that in the visible 
Church there should be a mixed multitude— tares and 
wheat ; that the weeds of earth should mingle with the 
flowers of Paradise, and the poisonous plants of the fall 
with the fragrant and beautiful productions of the 
kingdom of grace. "Although Christ afterward ex- 
plains that the field is the world," says Calvin, " it is 
yet not to be doubted but that properly he wished to 
apply this name to the Church, concerning which he 
had instituted his discourse. But since he was going to 



THE TARES. 57 

draw the plough of his gospel through every region of 
the globe, that he might cultivate fields for himself 
throughout the whole world, and disperse abroad the 
seed of life, by synecdoche he transfers to the world 
what properly applied only to a part of it." 

" The good seed are the children of the kingdom." 
There is no disagreement here, as might at first sight 
seem, between this parable and the preceding, in which 
"the seed is the word of God ;" there is only a progress 
from that parable to this. In that the word of God 
is the instrument by which men are born anew and be- 
come children of the kingdom ; that word is there con- 
sidered more absolutely in and by itself, while here it is 
considered after it has been received into the heart, in- 
corporated with the man, as that which has brought 
him into the position of a child of the kingdom. 

The existence of Christ's people in the Church, it 
should be distinctly noticed, he traces to himself. He 
compares them to wheat springing up — not spontane- 
ously, but from seed brought and sown there. And 
this seed, he says, he sowed. He causes his gospel to 
be preached in the world, preparing here and there the 
hearts of men to receive it, implanting it in their hearts, 
rooting it and making it fruitful within them, and there, 
through the gospel, he has a people rise up — a people 
of his own, a peculiar people — to love, serve and glorify 
him. Hence his people are said to be " begotten unto 
him "through the gospel, and to be "born again" of 
seed — incorruptible seed — which is the word of God. 

" The children of the wicked one" are sown by the 
wicked — of course in a moral sense, not according to 
the substance of their human nature — just as the sons 
of the kingdom are specifically " the seed " sown by the 



58 THE PARABLES OF JESUS. 

Saviour in the moral and religious sense. Here is a 
dreadful description of sinners, yet such an one as is true, 
it being given as by Christ himself. They are no other 
than tares, who choke the good seed and hinder it from 
growing up in the love of truth and from bringing 
forth the fruit of charity. Men become " the children 
of the wicked one " by following his dispositions and 
promoting his designs. 

The record that it was " while men slept" the enemy's 
operations were carried forward is not to be regarded 
as any reproach of an indolent ministry in the Church. 
It was night; all the community had retired to rot. 
Sleep the servants must ; Nature requires it. Had it 
been said that Avhile they played or were careless or 
riotous the injury was done, that would have implied 
negligence on their part ; but it is only said that they 
slept — were in a condition without which they could 
not live — so that the representation, instead of proving 
that their negligence caused the mischief, plainly proves 
that their diligence could not prevent it. 

At the same time it is true that the result here men- 
tioned, "his enemy came and sowed tares" is too often 
the result of our supineness and idleness. Our un watch - 
fulness is Satan's opportunity. Errors and vices spring 
up in the mind like weeds in a field neglected, and un- 
less due care and culture be applied will soon overrun 
it. Idleness begets ignorance, and ignorance begets error. 
The greatest heresies have stolen into the Church, not in 
times of light and knowledge, but in the hour of igno- 
rance and the " power of darkness." When the Roman 
Empire became Christian, and Christians were no longer 
exposed to persecution, but lived at ease and in pleasure, 
then the primitive discipleship of the Church relaxed; 



THE TARES. 59 

then men grew more careless about spiritual affairs and 
more busied about secular; then the tares sprang up and 
heresies abounded. Romish superstitions too crept into 
the Church in the most dark and illiterate ages since the 
coming of Christ, when the world was asleep to every- 
thing that was virtuous and praiseworthy and awake only 
to war and wickedness. In like manner, when that art- 
ful impostor Mohammed set up his pretensions, his coun- 
trymen, the Arabians, were sunk in the lowest ignorance, 
and the Christians of the East were infected with heresies 
and so divided among themselves that they became an 
easy prey to their common enemy. And as errors spring 
up in the understandings of men while they are remiss 
and negligent, so likewise evil affections gain ground 
upon their morals and corrupt their practice. The 
tempter is awake while we are asleep, and then plants 
those habits which commonly grow up with time, and 
are seldom rooted out afterward. Indeed, the best 
Christians are not always upon their guard; they are 
sometimes apt to remit their vigilance and care. Hence 
the Scriptures so frequently enjoin watchfulness, which 
is the very opposite >to sleeping: "Be sober, be vigilant; 
because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, 
walketh about, seeking whom he may devour;" "Blessed 
are those servants whom the Lord when he cometh shall 
find watching." 

"His enemy came and sowed tares among the wheat." 
Observe, it is Christ's own enemy that is here named. 
God declared in Paradise that there should be enmity 
between these two, "the Seed of the woman" and "the 
serpent ;" and here this enmity is in operation. No 
sooner does Chris! begin to gather sinners to himself 
than Satan comes in to mar his blessed work. Man, 



60 THE PARABLES OF JESUS. 

left to himself, would have done much to corrupt the 
gospel, but Satan would not leave man to himself. He 
came out of darkness among us with his falsehoods as 
soon as Christ had come among us from the light of 
heaven with his truth, and the consequence is, the 
Church of Christ on the earth has been from the very 
first a mixed scene ; it has had truth and error prevail- 
ing in it, false doctrine and true. Just as Christ's truth 
enters into men's minds and works there through Christ's 
power, making them " the children of his kingdom " and 
conforming them to his image, so do Satan's falsehoods 
enter into men's minds, and, working there through his 
power, they form the character of men after his model 
and lead them to do his works. 

It is not without significance that it is said of Satan 
that, after sowing " tares among the wheat," he " went his 
vxty." He does not permit himself to be seen ; he works 
in darkness ; the fruit of his working alone is seen. After 
ho has sown tares no subsequent or superintending care is 
required ; the unsanctified human heart is congenial soil 
for them. Satan knows the soil, and how rapidly the 
seeds of evil will grow if only placed in it. Errors are 
like weeds; let alone, they grow. The difficulty is to 
prevent their growth. 

Just here let us not fail to notice the personality as- 
cribed to the devil. That such a malignant and power- 
ful being as Satan exists none can doubt, unless it be 
those whose minds are " spoiled by philosophy and vain 
deceit." That there are difficulties attending every at- 
tempt to define the character and relations of this prince 
of evil none will deny, but the difficulties are much greater 
if we attempt to reconcile the expressions of the sacred 
writers with the opinion that they merely represent " a 



THE TARES. 61 

symbolical person/' "the principle of evil personified/' 
" an evil disposition," etc. Such attempts cannot be rec- 
onciled with any consistent principles of Scripture inter- 
pretation. We have no more right to reduce Satan and 
hell to figure than we have so to treat Christ, angels and 
heaven. It is no more contrary to the nature of God's 
government that there should be a Satan than that there 
should be a Niinrod, a Nero, a Tamerlane or a Moham- 
med. By the devil our first parents were betrayed into 
transgression. He is called Satan, or the Adversary, and 
here by our Lord expressly denominated "the devil." 
He is also characterized by the epithets "the god of this 
world/' "the prince of darkness/' "the prince of the 
power of the air/' " the accuser," " Belial," " the tempt- 
er," an "adversary," "deceiver," "liar," "the spirit which 
worketh in the children of disobedience," who "leads 
them captive at his will " — descriptions which could not 
with the least conceivable propriety be applied except to 
a living, active and malicious being. 

" The fullness of Satan's dominion," says Macmillan, 
'• was most clearly manifested in the world when the 
fullness of the Godhead that dwelt in Christ bodily was 
displayed to the eyes of men. But now that Christ is 
eoncealed by the cloud, so is Satan. In harmony with 
the viewless operations of the Holy Spirit are the subtle 
and impalpable agencies which Satan now wields. He 
bas withdrawn his sorceries, his outward signs, and 
tempts with covetousness and worldliness. And so 
thoroughly has he carried out this system of invisible 
temptation thai he has succeeded in persuading many 
that he has no existence as a personal spirit of evil, and 
thai evil is only an immature stage in the progress of 
the world's ripening." 



62 THE PARABLES OF JESUS. 

"But when the blade was sprung up and brought forth 
fruit, then appeared the tares also." What at first did 
uot clearly discover itself as tares, even to the experi- 
enced eye, could not conceal itself in its further progress 
when it became more matured. By their development 
and fruit the tares were known to be what they really 
were, though till then they had preserved a deceitful 
resemblance to the wheat. This representation precisely 
corresponds with the representation made by Dr. Thom- 
son of some tares which he saw in Palestine. " Let me 
call your attention," says he, "to these 'tares' which are 
growing among the barley. The grain is just in the 
proper stage of development to illustrate the parable. 
In those parts where the grain is headed out they have 
done the same, and there a child cannot mistake them 
for wheat or barley, but where both are less developed 
the closest scrutiny will often fail to detect them." "By 
their fruits ye shall know them." To hold the same 
doctrines, make the same profession and worship in the 
same church, produces a likeness up to a certain point 
among, men who are quite different in heart. But when 
a total contrast is seen between profession and practice, 
then the sad conclusion is forced upon us that such a 
person cannot really be one of "the children of the 
kingdom." 

Observe the questions of the servants : "Sir, didst not 
thou sore good seed in thy field 1 ? From ivhence then hath 
it tares f" The sense of the first question is, "We know 
perfectly well that thou didst sow good seed." The 
second question expresses in a lively manner their aston- 
ishment at the result : " Lord, we have read the glorious 
descriptions of thy Church, which represent it as 'the 
bride,' 'the Lamb's wife,' 'the living stones,' 'the fruit* 



THE TABES. 63 

ful trees/ ' the glorious Church uot having spot.' What 
means, then, this awful and repulsive mixture, these 
poisonous plants in the midst of it ?" It is impossible 
for Christ's servants on the earth to be blind to the 
corruptions and evils that exist in his Church on the 
earth. " All is well," others say. Whether truth or 
error more abounds they hardly know. Whether men 
live as the gospel commands them to live or after the 
course of this evil world, they do not care. The state 
of Christ's Church is nothing to them. They feel as a 
man feels when he passes by a stranger's field. Occupied 
with his own concerns, he never thinks of noticing in 
what state it is, whether weeds are covering it or corn. 
But Christ's servants feel as though that field belonged 
to One they love, as though it were their Master's, or 
rather their Father's, field. They long to see it covered 
with corn ripening for his garner, and when weeds 
overrun it they cannot help seeing them and wishing 
them away. 

"An enemy hath done this " is the answer to the ser- 
vants' perplexity. Human nature is indeed corrupt, 
but this fact floes not suffice to explain the great corrup- 
tion in the Church, whose divine agencies are so inef- 
ficacious in many of her professing members. There is 
an enemy who knows well how to make a skillful use 
of every unhappy circumstance in order to restrain the 
empire of light. 

The tlii rd question of the servants, "Wilt thou then 
that ice go and gather them tvpf expresses at once their 
dc-iii' and their readiness to serve the Lord. It is well 
that they ask of him, lor in (he Lord's kingdom nothing 
niu-t be transacted by his servants according ro their 
own will, their private sense and conviction of what 



64 THE PARABLES OF JESUS. 

is right. His will is the true rule of conduct, and 
becomes also the will of his servants. To " gather up " 
means to " root up," to apply a power of extirpation. 

Evidently the Lord's "Nay" could not have in- 
tended that his Church should be defiled and discredited 
by retaining in her communion openly profligate and 
dissolute oifenders. Such "children of the wicked one" 
as should presumptuously associate themselves with his 
people, and yet manifest themselves to be " aliens from 
the commonwealth of Israel " by profligacy and vice, 
it never could have been meant to tolerate within the 
bosom of his holy Church. Any arguments against 
the exclusion of unworthy members, founded on this 
parable, are perversions of Scripture. Elsewhere Chris- 
tians may clearly read their duty in regard to any 
brother who walks disorderly ; elsewhere they may 
learn how to counsel, exhort and rebuke the erring, 
and, if he remain impenitent, how to cast him out of 
communion by a spiritual sentence. 

What, then, is the meaning of this prohibition that 
the tares be extirpated ? It requires that we should 
not be harsh or precipitate in judgment or discipline 
toward those whom Ave may deem unfit members of the 
Church. Ministers cannot always distinguish between 
true and false believers. It is God alone who knows 
the heart; he knows them that are his, and he alone 
knows it with certainty. The prophet Elijah imagined 
that he alone was left a worshiper of the God of Israel, 
but God said unto him, "I have reserved to myself 
seven thousand men who have not bowed the knee to 
Baal." The disciples did not know that Judas was a 
devil, but Jesus knew it from the beginning. When 
Saul of Tarsus was first converted the disciples ;it Jcru- 



THE TARES. 65 

salem did not know that he was sincere, and were for 
.some time afraid to receive him. Whilst severe -in 
judging ourselves, we should endeavor to judge favor- 
ably of others, placing before our minds every consider- 
ation tending to aid that charity which " thinketh no 
evil, believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth 
all things." We should only seek the excommunica- 
tion of others from the Church for such conduct as will 
tarnish her glory and bring dishonor upon her Lord. 

There is, on the part of many good people, a dis- 
position, for the wheat's sake, hastily to pull up the 
tares. " There is that hypocrite," they say, " that 
worker of iniquity ! He comes in and out among 
Christ's people as one of themselves, no man suspect- 
ing him. What harm he will do among them! We 
must unmask him; we must show him to our neigh- 
bors and fellow-Christians as he is." But "Be still," 
God says to us here. " Be not over-hasty in this mat- 
ter of judging others. Leave that man to me. Fret 
not thyself because of evil-doers." It is not always 
certain that men are the hypocritical and iniquitous men 
we deeni them. We see but a part of their conduct, 
yet judge of them as though we saw the whole. 

We are to expect that good and evil will always be 
found together in the professing Church until the end 
of the world. In the band of our Lord's apostles 
was a Judas; in the little church of Samaria, a Si- 
mon Magus; in the church of Pergamos, those " who 
held the doctrines of Balaam ;" in the church of Thy- 
atira, a Jezebel-like woman; in the church of Sardis, 
those whose works " had not been found perfect before 
Cod;" and in the churches of Rome, Corinth, Colossej 
EDphesus, I'liili|>|ti, Thessalonica were those " who had 



66 THE PARABLES OF JESUS. 

a name indeed to live, but yet were dead in trespasses 
and sins." The same mixture of believers and un- 
believers, converted and unconverted, existed in the 
times of the early Fathers and during the Reformation, 
and what was true then is true now. In every gospel 
field we find tares growing up with the wheat, The 
devil, that great enemy of souls, continues to sow 
"tares." Do what we will to purify a Church, we shall 
never succeed in obtaining a perfectly pure communion. 
Tares will be found among the wheat. Hypocrites 
and deceivers will creep in. And, worst of all, if we 
are violent, rash and extreme in our efforts to obtain 
purity, we shall do more harm than good. We run 
the risk of encouraging many a Judas Iscariot and 
breaking many a bruised reed. In our zeal to " gather 
up the tares " we are in danger of " rooting up the 
wheat with them." Such zeal is not according to knowl- 
edge, and has often done much harm. Those who care 
not what happens to the wheat provided they can root 
up the tares show little of the mind of Christ. There 
is deep truth in the charitable saying of Augustine : 
" Those who are tares to-day may be wheat to-morrow." 

Yet, after all this admission, the obligation and the 
duty remain to have the field of the Church preserved 
in every respect as pure as possible, that in doctrine, 
practice and constitution she may be conformable to the 
mind of Christ. 

Though the tares are thus for several wise reasons 
suffered to grow up among the wheat, there is a time 
coming when there will be a discrimination. God, the 
most just Governor and righteous Judge of the world, 
must show his approbation of virtue and disapprobation 
of vice one time or other ; it is evident that he does not 



THE TARES. 67 

always do this in the present state, and therefore we 
may be certain that he must and will do it hereafter. 

"The harvest" says Jesus, "is the end of the world" 
The end of the world, then, is a fixed, an ordained and 
expected time. The God of Nature has wisely appoint- 
ed the order and succession of the seasons. After the 
Deluge, when God promised no more to destroy the 
earth by water, he also engaged that while the earth 
remaineth seed-time and harvest, cold and heat, summer 
and winter, and day and night should not cease. The 
experience of more than four thousand years has con- 
vinced us of the faithfulness of God to this promise ; 
and by the same authority " it is appointed unto all 
men once to die, and after death the judgment." Death 
and judgment are as certainly fixed and appointed as 
seed-time and harvest are. The end of the world may 
also be compared to harvest, because it is a separating 
time. Then "the Son of man shall send forth his 
angels, and they shall gather out of his kingdom 
[his Church] all things that offend and them that 
do iniquity." 

How dreadful the condition of ungodly professors ! 
They shall be " cast into a furnace of fire ;" " there 
shall be wailing and gnashing of teeth," deep lamen- 
tation, anguish and despair, aggravated by a recol- 
lection of the privileges they once enjoyed and abused, 
and the vain hope which, as professed disciples mingled 
with the true ones, they once entertained. Even admit- 
ting that this language 'is figurative, yet how dreadful 
must be the doom set forth by such terrible imagery! 
The fierce struggle of contending passions, the un- 
checked power of evil rising and swelling with tumult- 
uous rage, the writhings of a spirit bereft of every hope 



68 THE PARABLES OF JESUS. 

and haunted by despair, the goadings of a conscienoa 
quickened into intense activity by the memory of the 
past, the remembrance of what is lost — heaven, the 
soul, God's pardon, Christ's favor, everlasting bliss — 
and the consciousness of what has been self-induced, — 
oh, this, this, supposing it to be all, would be enough 
to make the lost sinner, exclaim, " Which way I fly is 
hell, myself am hell " — would be enough to fill the soul 
with unutterable horror, and to keep alive the fire that 
ever burns with gnawing but never-consuming flame ! 

Look now at the glorious destiny which awaits " the 
righteous" at this "harvest" — those who are justified 
by faith in the righteousness of Jesus, and in whom his 
Spirit dwells, working conformity to his law. During 
their earthly conflicts they much resembled other men ; 
they had the same wants, the same toils, the same gains 
and losses, the same sicknesses and decays, the same 
besetting infirmities of a fallen nature; but still there 
was in them "the law of the spirit of life in Christ 
Jesus," and now they have reached the day of their 
entire and eternal deliverance from "the body of this 
death." Then shall they shine forth as the sun. Then 
shall all that here lay hid in them be unfolded ; all 
shall be perfect and enlarged to- an ineffable perfection. 
The very body shall become a vessel of glory, being 
made like to the glorious body of. the second Adam, of 
whom even in the days of his flesh, we read, in his one 
only season of transient lightness, that " his raiment was 
white and glistering," "white as the light," "exceeding 
white as snow, so as no fuller on earth can white them," 
" and his face did shine as the sun." So with our flesh : 
" it is sown in weakness, it is raised in power; it is sown 
in dishonor, it is raised in glory." The body in which 



THE TARES. 69 

we have groaned, " being burdened," in which we have 
often fainted, in which we have been bowed down to 
earth, even that same earthly frame shall be full of life 
and penetrated with the light of heaven. There shall 
be in it no more any law warring against the law of the 
Spirit, no division of the man against himself, no strife 
in the being of the righteous; but the glorious body 
shall be the glad minister of a holy will and quickened 
by the pervading unity of the glorified spirit. We 
know that " they which shall be accounted worthy to 
obtain that world and the resurrection from the dead" 
cannot " die any more, for they are equal to the angels, 
and are the children of God, being the children of the 
resurrection." Nay more: we shall bear the likeness 
of the Son of God, of whom we read, when he appear- 
ed to John, that " his countenance was as the sun that 
shinetli in his strength." All this glory of the body, 
too, will, as it would seem, be chiefly but the manifesta- 
tion of the glory of the spirit. Then shall our sanc- 
tification be perfectly fulfilled : " We shall be like him, 
for we shall see him as he is." 

Such is the representation which the parable makes of 
the final separation. And what is to be the rule of sep- 
aration ? Relationship ? our love and affection one for 
another ? our desire to go together and rejoice or suffer 
together? No ! Here goes the wife and there the hus- 
band, here the parent and there the child, here the brother 
;iikI there the sister; they who are now dwelling in the 
same house are separated as far asunder as heaven and 
hell. The children of the kingdom are to be parted 
from the children of the evil one. If we have never 
known the cleansing of a Saviour's blood, never sought 
and found his mercy, do matter how our souls may now 



70 THE PARABLES OF JESUS. 

love some of those who are his people and cling to them, 
there is a day coming when we shall be torn from them 
and bound together with the filthy and the vile. 

No wonder Jesus concluded such a parable with the 
injunction, " Who hath ears to hear, let him hear." Let 
the skeptic and the worldling hear. Often, when anx- 
ious to get an objection to Christianity or a reason for 
having nothing to do with it, they quote such a person 
or such a minister who fell into such a sin, and make 
that a reason for rejecting the whole. But how absurd ! 
Every passage in the Bible which alludes to the subject 
leads us to believe that the visible Church will be a mix- 
ture of good and bad, and the very fact of finding the 
bad in the midst of it is only evidence of the fulfillment 
of God's prophecy, that so it should be till the end of 
the world. Nor is the fact that there are good and bad 
in the visible Church to be blamed on our religion. The 
gospel never made men bad ; it is not fitted to do so, and 
to blame Christianity for the bad men and hypocrites 
who hide within it is no more fair than to blame patriot- 
ism for traitors or the mint for bad coin. 

Let impatient Christians hear. If the great Husband- 
man is patient with the tares, much more should we be. 

Let self-deceivers hear. Let them not imagine that 
their being ranked in outward profession with " the chil- 
dren of the kingdom" constitutes them of the happy 
number. Let them examine themselves as to the grounds 
of their hope. 

Let all hear, so as to give all their care to this great 
object, that they themselves may now be approved by 
Christ as wheat, and gathered into his glorious garner. 



«MlE*MU8TAfiD-fflH«- 



'Cross to our interests, curbing sense and sin. 
Oppressed without and undermined within, 
It thrives through pain, its own tormentors tires, 
And with a stubborn patience still aspires. 
To what can reason such effects assign, 
Transcending Nature, but to laws divine, 
Which in that sacred volume are contained, 
Sufficient, clear, and for that use ordained?" 

71 



3 i The kingdom of heaven is like to a grain of mustard-seed, which 

a man took, and sowed in his field: which indeed is the least of all 

32 seeds : but -when it is grown, it is the greatest among herbs, and be- 

cometh a tree, so that the birds of the air come and lodge in the 

branches thereof 

Matt. xiii. 31, 32. See also Mark iv. 30-32; 
Luke xiii. 18, 19. 
72 



THE MUSTARD-SEED. 



n~^HIS parable and that of the Leaven, which suc- 
-*- ceeds it, might seem, at first sight, to be repeti- 
tions of the same truth, but they are not so. On nearer 
inspection an essential difference will be discerned be- 
tween them. The latter relates to the kingdom of 
God, which " cometh not with observation ;" the for- 
mer is concerning the same kingdom as it displays 
itself openly. The one declares the intensive, the other 
the extensive, development of the gospel. The one sets 
forth the power and action of the truth on the world 
brought in contact with it ; the other exhibits the power 
of the truth to develop itself from within itself, as the 
tree shut up within the seed, which will unfold itself 
according to the law of its being. 

The connection between this parable and all that pre- 
cedes it in the chapter is manifest. The disciples had 
heard that three classes of the seed sown by the Sower. 
perished, and only a fourth prospered. They had also 
heard that even among the wheat there were tares. 
Lest, therefore, they should be tempted to despair, 
Jesus spoke this parable for their encouragement. 

If it should be asked why a mustard tree was chosen 
as that with which the kingdom of God should be com- 
pared, when many noble plants, as the vine, or taller 

7 73 



74 THE PARABLES OF JESUS. 

trees, as the cedar, might have been named, it might be 
replied that this particular tree was chosen, not with 
reference to its ultimate greatness, but with reference to 
the proportion between the smallness of the seed and 
the greatness of the plant which unfolds itself from 
thence. 

There is no need of supposing that any other than 
the well-known mustard-plant is referred to. " Of the 
mustard-plants which I saw on the banks of the Jor- 
dan," savs Dr. Hooker in Smith's Dictionary, " one was 
ten feet" high." Thomson saw the wild mustard-plant 
as tall as the horse and his rider. Dr. Hackett writes : 
" Some days after this, as I was riding across the Plain 
of Akka on the way to Carmel, I perceived at some dis- 
tance from the path what seemed to be a little forest or 
nursery of trees. I turned aside to examine them. On 
coming nearer, they proved to be an extensive field of 
the plant which I was so anxious to see. It was then 
in blossom, full grown, in some cases six, seven and nine 
feet high, with a stem or trunk an inch or more in thick- 
ness, throwing out branches on every side. I was now 
satisfied in part. I felt that such a plant might well be 
called a tree, and, in comparison with the seed producing 
it, a great tree ; but still the branches or stems of the 
branches were not very large or apparently very strong. 
Can the birds, I said to myself, rest upon them? Are 
they not too slight and flexible? Will they bend or 
break beneath the superadded weight? At that very 
instant, as I stood and revolved the thought, lo ! one of 
the fowls of heaven stopped in its flight through the air, 
alighted down on one of the branches, which hardly 
moved beneath the shock, and then began to warble 
forth a strain of the richest music. All my doubts 



THE MUSTARD-SEED. 75 

were now charmed away. I was delighted at the inci- 
dent. It seemed to me at the moment as if I enjoyed 
enough to repay me for all the trouble of the whole 
journey." 

In considering the progressive development of Chris- 
tianity, which the parable sets before us, we are called to 
notice, first, the sma/lness of its beginning. 

" The birth of the Son of man in Bethlehem is the 
small and unpromising commencement of the heavenly 
kingdom, which in its manifestation is identified with 
him. In the quiet of domestic privacy the child in- 
creases. In his thirtieth year he comes forth into public, 
teaches three years, and then dies upon the cross. Fisher- 
men and publicans, plain and unlettered men, are his first 
scholars and messengers, and they gathered themselves 
to him only by degrees. So small at first was the com- 
pany of our Lord's followers!" 

When Jesus, after the obscurity of his youth, came 
forth and " began to teach and to preach," who saw in 
the plain Nazarene anything to indicate a greatness that 
should fill the earth with its glory? Who would recog- 
nize in him one who should revolutionize the world? 
( )r, beholding him at the beginning of his ministry — 
selecting as his disciples, as we have just seen, not the 
titled, the wealthy, the influential, but fishermen and 
tax-gatherers, ignorant and rude Galileans — who would 
BOl have said that here, surely, was a great mistake? 
Who would not have said that to entrust to such un- 
couth and uneducated men so great a treasure as the 
gospel professed to he, was a mistake? that, if the design 
of Jesus was to make converts and popularize his doc- 
bines, heshould have selected well-skilled scribes, learned 
Pharisees or influential Sadducees — men who would have 



76 THE PARABLES OF JESUS. 

been listened to with reverence? But to call a man from 
his nets and fishing-tackle, and to tell him to go preach the 
gospel — to call another from his publican's seat and tax- 
table, and commission him 'to declare the whole counsel 
of God concerning man's highest and eternal interests- 
seemed to finite minds like attempting to achieve great 
ends by totally inadequate means. When, at last, after 
three years' going up and down throughout the cities of 
Palestine, the Founder of this new religion was arrested, 
condemned and crucified like a slave, who would have 
supposed that his tenets could survive the dispersion of 
his disciples and his own ignominious death ? 

Thus the life and death of Christ, in their human 
aspects, had emphatically the insignificance of a grain 
of mustard-seed. 

But mark the glorious progress of the gospel notwith- 
standing all the outward disadvantages and the violent 
opposition which it had to encounter ! " On the fiftieth 
day after their Master's death his apostles commenced 
executing his' charge. Beginning in Jerusalem, the 
very furnace of persecution, they first set up their 
banner in the midst of those who had been first in the 
crucifixion of Jesus and were all elate with the triumph 
of that tragedy. No assemblage could have been more 
possessed of dispositions perfectly at war with their 
message than that to which they made their first ad- 
And what was the tenor of the address? 'Jesus 
of Nazareth, ' said Peter, 'being delivered by the deter- 
minate counsel and foreknowledge of God, ye have 
taken, and by wicked hands have crucified and slain, 
whom God hath raised up. Therefore let all the house 
,,{" Israel know assuredly that God hath made that 
same Jesus, whom ye have crneified, both Lord and 



THE MUSTARD-SEED. 77 

Christ.' One would have supposed that the same 
hands that had rioted in the blood of his Master 
would now have wreaked their enmity in that of his 
daring and, to all human view, most impolitic apostle. 
Bat what ensued? Three thousand souls were that day 
added to the infant Church. In a few days the number 
was increased to jive thousand, and in the space of about 
a year and a half, though the gospel was preached only 
in Jerusalem and its vicinity, ' multitudes, both of men 
and women/ and ' a great company of the priests, were 
obedient to the faith.' Now, the converts being driven, 
by a fierce persecution, from Jerusalem, ' went every- 
where preaching the word/ and in less than three 
years churches were gathered ' throughout all Judsea, 
Galilee, and Samaria, and were multiplied.' " 

About two years after this, or seven from the begin- 
ning of the work, the gospel was first preached to the 
Gentiles, and such was the success that before thirty 
years had elapsed from the death of Christ his Church 
had spread throughout Judsea, Galilee and Samaria, 
through almost all the numerous districts of the Lesser 
Asia, through Greece and the islands of the iEgean Sea, 
the seacoast of Africa, and even into Italy and Rome. 
The number of converts in the several cities respect- 
ively is described by the expressions, "a great number," 
i multitudes," "much people." AVhat an exten- 
sive impression had been made is obvious from the 
outcry of the opposers at Thessalonica, "that they, who 
laid turned tin world upside down, were conic hither 
also." Demetrius, an enemy, complained of Paul that 
"not only in Ephesus, but also throughout all Asia, he 
ided and turned away much people." In the mean 
while, Jerusalem, (he chief Beal of Jewish rancor, 



78 THE PARABLES OF JESUS. 

•continued the metropolis of the gospel, having in it 
many tens of thousands of believers. These accounts 
are taken from the book of the Acts of the Apostles, 
but as this book is almost confined to the labors of Paul 
and his immediate companions, saying very little of the 
work of the other apostles, it is very certain that the 
view we have given of the propagation of the gospel 
during the first thirty years is very incomplete. 

In the thirtieth year after the beginning of the work 
the terrible persecution under Nero kindled its fires. 
Then Christians had become so numerous at Rome that, 
by the testimony of Tacitus, " a great multitude " were 
seized. In forty years more, as we are told in a cele- 
brated letter from Pliny, the Roman governor of Pontus 
and Bithynia, Christianity had long subsisted in these 
provinces, though so remote from Judsea. "Many of 
all ages, and of every rank, of both sexes likewise," 
were accused to Pliny of being Christians. What he 
calls "the contagion of this superstition " (thus forcibly 
describing the irresistible and rapid spread of Chris- 
tianity) had " seized not cities only, but the less towns 
•also, and the open country," so that the heathen temples 
"were almost forsaken," few victims were purchased 
for sacrifice, and "a long intermission of the sacred 
solemnities had taken place." 

Justin Martyr, who wrote about thirty years after Pliny, 
and one hundred after the gospel was first preached to 
the Gentiles, thus describes the extent of Christianity in 
his time: "There is not a nation, either Greek or bar- 
barian, or of any other name, even of those who wander 
in tribes and live in tents, among whom prayers :uid 
thanksgivings are not offered to the Father and Creator 
of the universe in the name of the crucified Je 



THE MUSTARD-SEED. 79 

Clemens Alexandrinus, a few years after, thus writes : 
" The ])hilosophers were confined to Greece and to their 
particular retainers, but the doctrine of the Master of 
Christianity did not remain in Judaea, but is spread 
throughout the whole world — in every nation and vil- 
lage and city, converting both whole houses and sep- 
arate individuals, having already brought over to the 
truth not a few of the philosophers themselves. If 
the Greek philosophy be prohibited, it immediately 
vanishes ; whereas, from the first preaching of our doc- 
trine, kings and tyrants, governors and presidents, with 
their whole train, and with the populace on their side, 
have endeavored with their whole might to exterminate 
it, yet doth it flourish more and more." 

Thus did the gospel, beginning in so insignificant a 
way, grow and mightily prevail. True, indeed, it 
brought strange things to the ears of the schools of 
earthly wisdom. The Sophist looked for subtle reason- 
ings, the orator for attuned periods, the populace for 
mythological and monstrous fictions, for noisy festivals 
and for polluting rites ; but to no class did this new 
religion present anything attractive. True, indeed, 
also it was, like its Author, hated and rejected of men. 
Everything rose in opposition to it, all the prejudices 
of the people, all the bad passions of the people, all the 
institutions of the people; yea, and the civil arm too 
was lifted up. But resistance though there was, the truth 
spread and triumphed, making its power to be deeply ami 
widely lilt. Its noble philosophy, notwithstanding the 
feebleness of the instruments employed, settled itself in 
the conviction of the loftiest intellects, while the voice of 
mercy which it uttered, bhe love of Chris! which it pro- 
claimed, spread gladness and hope through myriads of 



80 THE PARABLES OF JESUS. 

despairing men. Its morals cheeked the progress of 
social corruption; its benevolence set the captive at 
liberty and gave protection to the oppressed ; its mani- 
fested immortality controlled one world by the revealed 
solemnities of another. Paganism fell prostrate before 
it like the Dagon of Philistia, and lay broken and 
mutilated on the very thresholds of the temples where 
it had been adored. 

Thus did that grain of truth, small as a mustard-seed, 
sown by the Son of man, grow up into a tree of life, 
" sending out its boughs unto the sea, and its branches 
unto the river." Thus has it since continued to in- 
crease and expand until it has become the controlling 
force of the world, and its future development is beyond 
all contingency or doubt. Christianity can meet no 
obstacles greater than it has already overcome. Al- 
ready it has pervaded with its saving power the philo- 
sophic Greek, the warlike Roman, the bigoted Jew, 
the wandering Arab, the pliant Persian, the super- 
stitious Hindoo. No peculiarity of caste or tribe or 
climate has arrested its progress. It has shot forth in 
all the beautiful crystallization of Christian character 
wherever its power has been allowed to penetrate. Its 
influence has spanned gulfs and firths; climbed the 
Alps, Apennines and Himalayas ; crossed broad seas and 
traveled bleak deserts, and left its trophies everywhere. 
it has seized and transformed humanity in every lat- 
itude. Great intellects have bowed before the truth, 
and humble minds have been elevated by it. Prejudice 
has fled like morning mists at its approach, and fierce 
passions have subsided like waves after the storm, and 
idol-shrines and temples have been transmuted into the 
churches of Christ. 



THE MUSTARD-SEED. 81 

This power which has been so gloriously triumphant 
will not cease to go forth " conquering and to conquer " 
until the victory is complete, and all peoples and kin- 
dreds, in acknowledgment of their obligation and alle- 
giance to Him who is " the Desire of all nations," shall, 
with one grand doxology, 

" Bring forth the royal diadem, 
And crown him Lord of all." 

Napoleon, in St. Helena, with the solemn ocean round 
him and the silent sky above, the fierce passions which 
had so long raged in his heart growing still as the vol- 
canic fires which once tore the heart of his lonely isle, 
said to Count de Montholon : 

" I know men, and I tell you that Jesus Christ is not 
a man ! The religion of Christ is a mystery which sub- 
sists by its own force and proceeds from a mind which 
is not a human mind. We find in it a marked individ- 
uality which originated a train of words and actions 
unknown before. Jesus is not a philosopher, for his 
proofs are miracles, and from the first his disciples 
adored him. Alexander, Caesar, Charlemagne and my- 
self founded empires, but on what foundation did we 
reel the creations of our genius? Upon force. Jesus 
Christ founded an empire upon love, and at this hour 
millions of men would die for him. I die before my 
time, and my body will be given back to the earth to 
become food for worms. Such is the fate of him who 
has been called the Great Napoleon. What an abyss 
between my deep mystery and the eternal kingdom of 
Christ, which is proclaimed, loved and adored, and is 

extending over the whole earth !" 

Not mi man's opinions, however, do we rest ourexpecta- 



82 THE PARABLES OF JESUS. 

tion of the gospel's triumph, nor upon his plans and 
efforts, but upon God's promised power. The plan is 
not ours. It was laid in the mind of God before the 
world was. The principal arrangements of the scheme 
are not left to us, but are already fixed by the infinite 
wisdom of God. The part we fill is very subordinate, 
and we expect success, not for the wisdom or fituess of 
the means themselves, but because they are connected 
with mightier motions, whose success is vast and rapid 
and whose direction is divine. In a word, we expect 
success because God has formed a scheme of universal 
redemption, to be gradually but fully developed. He 
has given gifts to the world, the value of which is in 
every age to be more fully demonstrated, and he has 
established offices in the person of Christ which he is 
qualified to fill to the full height of the divine idea. 
Full of encouragement is this parable for all who are 
engaged in preaching the gospel and all who take an 
interest in its spread. We see the growth of a seed into 
a plant, and wonderful as it is we are not surprised at it ; 
nay, we expect to see. it so, because it is according to the 
course of Nature — that is, according to God's appointment. 
But it is also according to the declared will and purpose 
of God that the gospel shall spread in the world and his 
kingdom prevail. Let us believe and look for this as 
surely. Let us feel encouraged in our efforts to diffuse 
divine truth. God causes the seed to grow, and God 
will cause his kingdom to spread. The one is his will 
as much as the other. Let every worker for God be 
cheered in his work by this belief. Let all who long 
for the reign of righteousness rejoice in this hope. 



*THE* LEAVEN,* 



"Oh, bless the pious zeal 
And erown -with glad success the laboring sons 
Of that best charity, whose annual mite 
Sends forth thy gospel to the distant isles! 
So shall the nations, rescued myriads, hear, 
And own thy mercy over all thy works! 
So, from each corner of the enlightened earth 
Incessant peals of universal joy 
Shall hail thee, heavenly Father, God of all!" 

83 



The kingdom of heaven is like unto leaven, which a woman took, and 
kid in three measures of meal, till the whole was leavened. 

Matt. xiii. 33. 
84 



THE LEAVEN. 



OUE Lord had just given to his hearers an agricul- 
tural analogy in the parable of the Mustard-Seed. 
To this he now adds another, borrowed from domestic 
life, as if to leave no part of every-day experience 
unemployed in the elucidation and enforcement of re- 
ligious truth. 

The phrase " kingdom of heaven " is used in a 
variety of senses in the New Testament. Sometimes 
it is descriptive of the state and economy of the Church 
under Christianity as opposed to the Jewish and Mosaic 
economy; then, again, it turns our thoughts inwardly 
upon ourselves, and teaches us that the kingdom of 
heaven is within us, calling us mainly to consider the 
dominion of divine grace in the human heart. By 
this phrase here we are to understand the reign of 
grace by which Christ rules in the hearts of men. 

Having exhibited in the preceding parable the king- 
dom in its own inherent life and irresistible power, the 
Saviour in this exhibits it as working within the soul of the 
believer. The first has principally to do with the open, 
manifest triumph and glory of the Messiah's kingdom ; 
the second shows that coextensive with this there is 
proceeding an inward process of assimilation, so that 



86 THE PARABLES OF JESUS. 

the dwellers under the shadow of the kingdom shall 
also have it "within them." 

Leaven is a small piece of fermenting dough, which, 
placed in a large mass of 'meal or paste, produces fer- 
mentation in it, and thus, by the escape of the gen- 
erated gas, diffuses a lightness, or "raises" the dough 
with which it is intermixed. There need be no diffi- 
culty in regard to our Lord's using this substance for 
the purposes of his illustration. True it is that leaven 
is frequently used elsewhere in the Scriptures as the 
symbol of something evil, but then it is not always so ; 
and even if it were, there can be no good reason why it 
should not be also employed to illustrate what is good. 
There are other instances in which the sacred writers em- 
ploy a figure sometimes in a good sense, sometimes in a 
bad one. For example, Satan is compared to a lion, and 
yet Jesus is called " the Lion of the tribe of Judah." 
So, too, the most common scriptural emblem of the 
devil is a serpent, and yet a serpent, raised high upon 
a pole, was employed as a type of the Kedeemer. 

No difficulty, indeed, in regard to the use of " leaven " 
in this parable in a good sense would ever have occurred 
but for the interpretation which some have attempted 
to put upon the parable, as though it were a foreshadow- 
ing of corruptions which should arise in the Church. 
Such interpretation, however, gains no support from the 
sense which it falsely insists the term " leaven " should 
here have, for if it be admitted it implies a universal 
apostasy, the utter extinction of that Church again-; 
which Christ promised that the gates of hell should 
not prevail. 

A woman is mentioned in the parable rather than 
a man, because bread-making was woman's work. Yfifrj 



THE LEAVEN. S7 

though it may not be directly taught here, it certainly 
is the case that in spreading the gospel there is a work 
for women as well as for men. We have only to read 
Paul's Epistles to see how women were made use of 
for this purpose in the early Church, and in our own 
time women hold a most important place in the work 
of the gospel. 

The leaven, let it be observed, was a foreign importa- 
tion. It was not naturally in the substance to which it 
was applied, nor derived from it, but taken from else- 
where. The gospel, it is scarcely necessary to say, is 
neither in whole nor in part of earthly or human ori- 
gin ; it is the mystery which was hid in God before the 
foundation of the world. It "came into the world," 
as did its pre-existent Author. It descended from the 
region where all is life into our earth, where all is decay, 
that it might infuse vitality into our diseased and 
shattered humanity. 

Thus, too, is it with the grace which is identified 
with the gospel in its saving application to men. It is 
something alien from us — something that is introduced 
in!" us from without, not the unfolding of any powers 
which already exist in us. The change involved is not 
the excitation of some gracious principle which lay hid 
before in nature under the oppression of ill habits, as 
corn lies hid under the chaff, but is corn still ; not an 
awakening, as of a man from sleep; not, either, the 
mere restoration of depressed vitality, as the life which 
retires into the more secret parts of the body in those 
creatures that seem dead in winter, 1ml is revived and 
called "Hi to the exterior parts by the genial influence 
of the vernal sun. Neither, aor all of these, represent 
the change that is implied in conversion. The man is 



88 THE PARABLES OF JESUS. 

quickened from his death in trespasses and sins. He is 
made alive unto God. 

Leaven is of an assimilative nature. It communicates 
its own property to the meal with which it comes in 
contact. It does not destroy its identity, but alters its 
qualities. That Christianity is the one all-renewing 
power, we have only to glance at the inefficacy of all 
other expedients for man's moral and spiritual elevation, 
to be satisfied. What has it availed for this purpose 
that Philosophy has had its ages of trial, and that S-i- 
ence has erected her thousand temples, and worldly Wis- 
dom has delivered her myriads of lectures on the beauty 
of virtue and the hideousness of vice? Let this ques- 
tion be answered by the world's condition at the time 
when Jesus sent forth his disciples with their divine 
remedy for abounding depravity. Though Philosophy 
was at its height, and Reason had achieved her proudest 
triumphs, and the arts were in their maturity, and elo- 
quence was most finished and poetry most harmonious, yet 
the principles which were operating were only such as 
dissocialized society and oppressed humanity— as placed 
slaves at the sole mercy of their owners, to be tortured 
or killed as their savage tempers prompted ; and if there 
was religion, it was a heartless system, having no pre- 
cepts of forgiveness and charity, and leaving revenge 
and hardness of heart among the very virtues. 

Yes, the gospel is the world's sole renovator. Neither 
art nor science, nor religion in general as faith merely 
in a higher state of being, nor even the divine law 
itself, is able to produce that reformation within man 
which is wrought by the leaven of the heavenly king- 
dom. Besides the external conversion of the Roman 
world, it eradicated the innumerable heathen practices, 



THE LEAVEN. 89 

customs and feelings which had entwined their fibres 
round the very heart of society. It has ever since gone 
forward, transforming society into the likeness of itself, 
substituting peace and affection for hate and revenge, 
giving sanctity to the ties of nature, throwing its 
gentle protection over the oppressed and leading men 
to live as members one of another. 

As it is with Christianity in its general application 
in this respect, so likewise is it with that which is par- 
ticular. Divine grace comes into actual contact with the 
soul. It is not a thing that lies on the surface of a man 
or consists in outward forms, but it is something that 
gets into the heart. It is a principle that is conveyed 
into " the spirit of our mind," the centre and source of 
our being. 

It is alterative, too, in its efficacy. Chemists tell us 
that a very minute portion of some things will, to an 
almost incredible degree, transform the mass into which 
they are put. So is it with the divine power, which is 
compared to leaven. It works a change in the subject 
of it. He is " a new creature " because he has come to 
be " in Christ." The change he has experienced is so 
great that all things which were old are said to be done 
away, and all that remains to be made new. Is the man 
physically changed? No; he has the same senses, tongue, 
eyes and ears. Is he intellectually changed? No; he has 
not another understanding, memory, imagination. Is he 
socially changed ? No ; he is still a husband, father, mas- 
ter. A ml yet lie is another man, a new man. He is regen- 
erate. He has something of the holy and heavenly nature 
of divine truth in him. His mental faculties are changed 
in their use and sanctified. His physical powers are sacred 

to new purposes. lb' fills his relations in life with a new 

s * 



90 THE PARABLES OF JESUS. 

spirit. He is godly in them all. He carries on the same 
business, but now he abides with God in his calling. 
Whether he eats or drinks, or whatever he does, he aims 
to do all to the glory of God. If he was covetous, now 
he is liberal ; if he was prayerless, now he is devout ; if 
he was not vicious before, now he abhors from dispo- 
sition what he once only shunned from selfish motives; 
if he was moral, now his morality is evangelized. 

" Grace/' as has well been said, " did not give John 
his warm affections, but it fixed them on his beloved 
Master, sanctifying his love. It did not inspire Xehe- 
miah with the love of country, but it made him a holy 
patriarch. It did not give Dorcas her woman's heart of 
sympathy with suffering, but it associated charity with 
piety and made her a holy philanthropist. It did not 
give Paul his genius, his resistless logic and noble ora- 
tory, but it consecrated them to the cause of Christ; 
touching his lips as with a live coal from the altar, it 
made him such a master of holy eloquence that he 
swayed the multitude at his will, humbled the pride of 
kings and compelled his very judges to tremble. It did 
not give David a poet's fire and a poet's lyre, but it 
strung his harp with chords from heaven and tuned all 
its strings to the service of religion and the high praises 
of God." So grace ever works. Granted that there is 
not a perfect uniformity in this change as it is produced 
in different individuals, yet in each case the original com- 
plexion or constitutional peculiarity remains. The man 
, in the Christian. Like water, which partakes a 
little of the nature of the soil over which it runs, his 
very religion takes a hue from his natural temperament. 
This very fact, however, falls in precisely witli the meta- 
phor in hand, for flour remains flour; only it is leavened. 



THE LEAVEN. 91 

It accords also with the aim of Christianity, for whilst it 
does produce a community of saints, one faith, one love, 
one hope in all the real members of the Church, it does 
not propose to produce identity of thought, temper of 
mind and disposition. 

The gospel, like the leaven, is diffusive. The power 
which it exerts reaches to the entire man. The remedy 
is commensurate with the disease, and the recovery cov- 
ers all the ruin. It is thus that the terms of the apostle 
are to be understood in his prayer in behalf of the Thes- 
salonians, that God would " sanctify them wholly •" that 
is, " in spirit, soul and body." So must divine grace per- 
vade every part of our constitution. It must enthrone 
itself in the soul, and have its residence there, yet diffuse 
its energy and vital influence through all the parts and 
powers of the man, as well as all the departments of his 
life. 

Notice also the diffusion of the gosj^el from one man 
to others. As that which is once leavened becomes leaven 
to the rest, so every individual who has experienced in 
himself the efficacy of the gospel becomes a leaven to 
work still further. The presence of a pious man in a 
neighborhood tells in a marked degree upon its charac- 
ter. Many a district has undergone a species of moral 
renovation through the introduction within its circles of 
a God-fearing individual. From such an one, as he lives 
consistently, there; emanates amazing power to check and 
reprove ; and not unfrequently is that power the agency 
which ( rod employs to win the profligate and the worldly 
to himself. Like the leaven, the natural tendency of a 
Christian life is to spread itself. This it does in the 
domestic and social spheres, and beyond these in the 
great missionary-work of the Church. 



92 THE PARABLES OF JESUS. 

As leaven works from within, outwardly, so does the 
gospel Human schemes rely on a revolution in the 
state, Christianity on a revolution in the heart. The 
first begin at the circumference and try to work inward 
to the centre ; the second begins at the centre and works 
outward to the circumference, producing a mighty out- 
ward and visible change. AVe learn this from the Acts 
of the Apostles and from that interesting portion of 
Church history which treats of the spread of Chris- 
tianity. The gospel was hidden in the mass on which 
its influence was to be exerted. It was deposited there, 
accompanied by that unseen power— the power of the 
Spirit— without which no second causes, nor even the 
evidence of miracle's and prophecy, could have given it 
currency in a world which hated it for its very truth 
'and excellence. In that mass, a little below the sur- 
face of society, it worked mightily. This operation, 
however, did not long remain latent. It soon showed 
itself in its happy influence upon the world and in 
the astounding changes in faith and practice which 
it effected. The concealed force which was working 
ere long made its elevating power felt in the gentle 
but effective insinuations of itself into the fountains 
and channels of society. Hence it is that we find so- 
ciety rising in its moral tone. 

Now, in all this we have an exact counterpart of the 
work of Christianity upon the human soul. Keligion 
in the individual is a hidden activity. Its source and 
principles are unintelligible to natural men. The Chris- 
tian's life is " hid with Christ in God." Yet it is the 
law of this new life to work from the inward to the 
outward. It shows its presence by its agency. It is 
not only real, but visible. As it flows from principle, 



THE LEAVEN. 93 

so it is exemplified in practice. The grace which the 
believer has received, instead of lying within him as a 
dead thing, brings him under the dominion of holy 
habits of mind and urges him on to active outward 
obedience. It spreads in every direction, pervading 
every relation which he sustains. 

Like leaven, the gospel is silent in its operation. It 
creates no noise or confusion. Religion in the heart 
is like the sap that is taken up by the root and silently 
ascends the trunk of the tree, and diffuses itself to every 
branch, so that we see it lives, but do not see how. 
Great forces are silent. It is the vulgar idea that thun- 
der and the storm are the mightiest forces, because they 
are the most audible. Gravitation, A#iich is unseen and 
unheard, binds suns and stars into harmony and puts 
forth a force vastly greater than that" of the lightning. 
The light, which comes so silently that it does not in- 
jure an infant's eye, makes the whole earth burst into 
buds and blossoms, and yet is not heard. Thus, love 
and truth, the component elements of the gospel leaven, 
are silent but mighty in their action — mightier far than 
hate and persecution, and bribes and falsehoods, and 
sword and musket. Souls are won, " not by might, nor 
by power, but by my Spirit, saith the Lord of hosts." 

The operation of leaven is gradual. First it reaches 
one part of the meal, and then another. The work is 
silently progressive. So is it with the kingdom of God 
in the world. Our life is so short and our vision so 
contracted that we cannot observe the progress which 
this kingdom makes. Sometimes and in some places it 
seems bo recede, but when the end comes it will be 
seen thai every step of apparent retreat was the couch- 
ing in preparation for another spring. So, too, is it 



<! 1 THE PARABLES OF JESUS. 

with the kingdom of God in the soul; it advances 
by degrees. 

"So is it throughout the world of Nature. There is 
the babe, the youth, the man ;' there is the blade, the ear, 
and the full corn in the ear j there is the acorn, which 
grows to the wide-spreading oak; and the dawn, which 
brightens into the effulgence of noon. And so must we 
believe it is in the world of grace, unless we would 
despise all analogy and offend against the generation of 
God's children, and overlook what is said of Christians 
as ' renewed day by day ' and ' going from strength to 
strength.' Alas I when we remember the years that have 
come and gone since we were converted, and how many 
Sabbaths we havetenjoyed, how many sermons we have 
heard, how many prayers we have offered, how many 
communions we nave attended, and how many provi- 
dences we have met to help us on in divine life — good- 
nesses that should have led us to repentance and waves 
of trouble that should have lifted us higher on the Rock 
of Ages — how does sad experience teach us that progress 
in holiness is not only gradual but slow /" 

Still, let God's people thank him and take courage. 
Though grace, like leaven, is slow in its progress, it shall 
change the whole man, and the motto which flashed in 
gold on the high priest's forehead shall be engraven on 
our reason, heart and fancy, on our thoughts, desires and 
affections, on our lips and hands and feet, on our wealth 
and power and time, on our body and soul : the whole 
man shall be " Holiness to the Lord." 

" Our Lord," says Luther, " wishes here to comfort us 
with the similitude, and give us to understand that when 
the gospel, as a piece of new leaven, has once mixed 
itself with the human race— which is the dough— it will 



THE LEA VEX. 95 

never cease till the end of the world, but will make its 
way through the whole mass of those who are to be 
saved. And just as it is impossible for the sourness, 
when it has once mingled itself with the dough, ever 
again to be separated from it, because it has changed the 
nature of the dough, so is it impossible for Christians 
to be ever torn from Christ. For Christ, as a piece of 
leaven, is so incorporated with them that they form with 
him one body, one mass." " The righteous shall hold on 
his way, and he that hath clean hands* shall wax stronger 
and stronger." Grace will complete what grace begins. 
It will "perfect that which concerneth us." "Being con- 
fident of this very thing, that He which hath begun a 
good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus 
Christ." " For I am persuaded that neither death, nor 
life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things 
present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor 
any other creature shall be able to separate us from the 
love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord." 

It is even so. Grace will have a triumphant issue in 
tin.' believer's heart. Is his path as the shining light — 
the -nil, which never made a dawn without carrying it 
into lull day — the sun, whom none can drive back or 
Btop iii his course — the sun, which, if it had enemies and 
they cursed its beams, their rage would be as vain as it 
would be unreasonable ? Then must it be that the word 
of life, which has been received by the mystery of re- 
generatioD into the believer's heart, and claims every 
region and part of his being as its own, shall not there 
cease its effectual working till it has brought the whole 
man into obedience to it. 

The same issue of triumph awaits Christianity in its 
bearings on Hi<- rare. To Jesus has been committed the 



96 THE PARABLES OF JESUS. 

government of all things for the establishment of his 
mediatorial kingdom, and the purposes of his grace shall 
be accomplished. He goeth forth " conquering and to 
conquer f and as all power is given to him in heaven 
and on earth, no obstacle can resist his triumphant prog- 
ress. The passions and prejudices of men, no less than 
their talents, energies and hearts, are all subject to his 
control ; and, though an unbelieving world may scoff, the 
kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers take 
counsel together against the Lord and his Anointed, ^yet" 
will he overturn till He shall reign whose right it is, and 
until the song of the world's jubilee is heard from every 
hill and vale : " Hallelujah ! hallelujah ! for the Lord 
God omnipotent reigneth." 

" Fly abroad, thou mighty gospel ! 
Win and conquer, never cease ; 
May thy lasting, wide dominions 
Multiply, and still increase ! 

Sway thy sceptre, 
Saviour, all the world around." 



THE * HIDDEN * TREASURE 



'Religion's all. Descending froni the skies, 
To wretched man the goddess in her left 
Holds out this world, and in her right the next. 
9 97 



Again, the kingdom of heaven is like unto treasure hid in afield 
the which -when a man hath found, he hideth, and for joy thereof 
goeth and selleth all that he hath, and buyeth that field. 
* Matt. xiii. 44- 



THE HIDDEN TREASURE. 



TX Eastern countries the insecurity of property lias 
-*- ever been proverbial. This arises from the frequent 
changes of dynasties and the revolutions which accom- 
pany them. On this account many rich men divide 
their goods into three parts — one part to be invested in 
the daily transactions of commerce, a second converted 
into precious stones, which might easily be secreted 
about the person and carried away on any emergency, 
and the third buried in some place known only to the 
owner. 

Numerous accounts of the discovery of such hidden 
treasures are found in the pages of history. Herodotus 
tells of an ancient king of Egypt who had amassed four 
hundred thousand talents in the course of his life, which 
he had securely deposited in the garden adjoining his 
palace, and which was never known nor suspected by 
any till he imparted the secret to his sons on his death- 
bed. Joseph us informs us that Solomon laid up vast 
treasures in the royal sepulchre, which was reckoned 
the place of greatesl security, from the sacredness attached 
to the abodes of the dead. The same historian also tells 
ns that the inhabitants of Jerusalem, during its last and 
memorable siege, concealed their treasures in the streets 
■a\\(\ under the Hours and wiiliin the doorposts of their 



100 THE PARABLES OF JESUS. 

houses, and in various unfrequented parts of their city, 
and that the precious secret would have been for ever 
buried in the grave with the owners had not the plough 
of the conquerors passed over the ruins of the holy 
place and reduced it to a field. Discoveries of a similar 
kind are related in modern Oriental histories. "We 
are constantly hearing," says Mr. Roberts, late mission- 
ary in Hindostan, " of treasures which have been, and 
are about to be, discovered ; and it is no rare thing to 
see a large space of ground completely turned up, or a 
group of old and young digging amid the foundations 
of an old ruin, all full of the greatest eagerness and 
desire to reach the expected treasure." A few years 
ago about eight thousand gold coins of Alexander and 
his father Philip were found near the city of Sidon. 
They were contained in several copper pots, and are 
estimated as worth, at the price of gold in the time of 
Alexander, two hundred thousand dollars. Thomson, 
who speaks of the discovery, suspects that " it was royal 
treasure which one of Alexander's officers concealed 
when he heard of his unexpected death in Babylon, 
intending to appropriate it to himself, but being appre- 
hended, slain or driven away by some of the revolutions 
which followed that event, the coin remained where he 
had hid it." 

An occurrence like these supplies the groundwork of 
this parable. 

After our Lord had withdrawn himself from the 
people, was come home, and had given to his disciples 
the desired explanation of the parable of the Tares, he 
went on to deliver this and the three following parables, 
lie here teaches that the kingdom of God is not merely 
a general, but also an individual, thing. It is not merely 



THE HIDDEN TREASURE. 101 

to be observed and admired at a distance ; it is not a 
thing about which we may or may not be interested 
without involving any moral consequences; but there 
is a necessity for a personal appreciation and acceptance 
of it ; each man must have it for himself, and make it 
his own by a distinct act of his own will. It is not 
enough that a man come under the shadow of the great 
tree of the gospel and partake of the many blessings of its 
shelter ; it is not enough that he dwell in a Christendom 
which has been leavened, and so in a manner himself 
share in the universal leavening, — but the blessiags of 
the gospel must find a place in his own soul or else it 
will be lost. 

Let it be observed that our Lord merely takes such 
a case as was of common occurrence as the similitude of 
the truth he wished to inculcate. With the honesty or 
dishonesty of the man in the matter we have nothing to 
do. It is no more intended that we should act upon the 
principle which influenced him than we are to act upon 
the principle which influenced the unjust steward. Just 
as in the latter case it is the man's shrewdness, not his 
dishonesty, that is the lesson, so in the parable before us 
it is the man's eager desire to obtain at every cost the 
" treasure in the field " which is the lesson, and not 
the cunning by which he attained his end. 

How well may the blessings of the gospel be denominated 
a " treasure " / The tongue of an angel could not de- 
- ribe their value and preciousness. Pardon, acceptance, 
peace, joy, adoption, s;i notification, all-sufficient grace, a 
triumphant death and eternal life, — these great gifts meet 
and relieve every want of the soul. They are true 
riches, unsearchable riches, durable riches. They deliver 
from death. Thev ennoble in the world to come. 



102 THE PARABLES OF JESUS. 

What a contrast is there between these blessings and 
mere earthly interests and possessions! All happiness 
of a worldly kind is uncertain ; all the possessions and 
pleasures of this life are liable to decay and " perish in 
the using." Even when they are not taken from us, 
how often do they lose the qualities which originally 
fixed our regard, and, though they do not cease to 
exist, cease to please ! Like faded flowers, they become 
offensive instead of pleasant. Even if they were more 
satisfying and less corruptible than they are, how diffi- 
cult — in many cases how impossible — it is to retain 
them long ! 

Solemn and significant indeed is the testimony that 
has been given from experience on this subject, "I 
now read Solomon," said Lord Chesterfield when sixty- 
six years of age, and near the close of his unenviable 
life, " with a sort of sympathetic feeling. I have been 
as wicked and vain, though not as wise, as he, but am 
now at last wise enough to feel and attest the truth 
of his reflection that 'all is vanity and vexation of 
spirit.' " Madame Malibran, the most celebrated opera- 
singer of her age, returning home from a grand, aristo- 
cratic party where all had striven to overwhelm her 
with admiration, burst into tears, knowing that after 
all she was "a mere opera-singer" Alexander wept on 
the throne of the world. Charles V. and Diocletian 
descended from the throne to seek that happiness in 
private life which could not be found in the robes of 
royalty. Goethe said of himself in advanced age, 
" They have called me a child of fortune, nor have I 
any wish to complain of the course of my life. Yet 
it has been nothing but labor and sorrow, and I may 
truly say that in seventy-five years I have not had 



THE HIDDEN TREASURE. 103 

four weeks of true comfort. It was the coustant rolling 
of a stone that was always to be lifted anew." After 
the great prince Saladin had subdued Egypt, passed the 
Euphrates and conquered cities without number, after 
he had retaken Jerusalem, he finished his life in the 
performance of an action that ought to be transmitted 
to the most distant posterity. A moment before he 
uttered his last sigh he called the herald who had 
carried his banner before him in all his battles; he 
commanded him to fasten to the top of a lance the 
shroud in which the dying prince was soon .to be 
buried. " Go," said he, " carry this lance, unfurl this 
banner, and, while you lift up this standard, proclaim, 
' This, this is all that remains to Saladin the Great, 
the conqueror and the king of the empire, of all his 
glory !' " 

But while men's sensual and intellectual pleasures, 
worldly riches and honors, are unable by themselves to 
yield true enjoyment and must soon vanish from their 
grasp, the happiness which the gospel imparts to the 
Christian is pure, satisfying and permanent. It is not 
a mere pretence ; it is a glorious reality. It is beyond 
the reach of accident or change. Force cannot wrest 
it from us, fraud cannot beguile us of it. It forms 
part of the very nature, intellectual and moral, of him 
who possesses it, and he can no more lose it than he 
can lose himself. His inheritance above is "incorrupt- 
ible and undefiled, and fadeth not away." There is 
nothing in its own nature to cause decay, and it is 
secure from all external violence. It is at once in- 
corruptible and eternal. It is thus suited to the im- 
mortal spirit, [nstead of weakening and wearying our 
powers, it exalts and strengthens them. "The appetite 



104 THE PARABLES OF JESUS. 

grows with what it feeds on." The satisfactions arising 
out of these celestial enjoyments are not lessened by 
repetition nor disturbed by the fear of their coming to 
an end. They shall not merely never be diminished, 
but shall grow with the enlarging capacity for excel- 
lence and happiness throughout eternity. 

" Eye hath not seen, 
Ear hath not heard, nor can the human heart 
Those joys conceive, which— blissful heritage !— 
Christ for his faithful votaries prepares." 

The "field" in ivhich the "treasure" is hidden cannot 

be, as in the former parables, "the world." There is 

no' treasure in that field worth the buying, neither can 

it, in any sense, be said of any one that he " bought the 

world." Neither can it mean "the Church," for the 

Church has no such treasure in her which can thus be 

taken possession of. She may tell of such treasure, and 

point to where it is to be found ; the faithful may tell 

where they themselves have found it, but they will say, 

as Paul did, " We neither received it of man, neither 

were we taught it, but by revelation of Jesus Christ." 

Besides, how could it with any propriety be said that as 

the man in the parable bought the field for the treasure, 

so also he who seeks for the gospel treasure must possess 

himself of the Church in order to obtain the treasure? 

Evidently, the "field" in this parable is the same 

which is* set forth in the parable of the Sower by the 

seed. It is "the word of God." When the direct 

power and energy of the word upon the sinner's heart 

is intended to be shown, then it is good seed sown on 

good ground, springing up and bearing fruit. When 

it is the sinner's eager desire to possess that word with 



THE HIDDEN TREASURE. 105 

all its hid treasure, to give up all in order to obtain it, 
then it is "a field" in which "a treasure is hid." 

There is important significance in the name which is 
here given to the Scriptures. It was certainly possible 
for God to make his revelation to the race in such a 
form that (according to the demand of the infidel 
Strauss) a man should be able to lay his finger upon a 
precept or a doctrine for each occurring need, and to 
find in one place and under one head all that relates to 
one matter. It might have been given to us as a sys- 
tematic body of divinity, or as a statute-book with a 
digest and index accompanying it, so that in a moment, 
as it were, all might be seen that it contains touching 
any of its articles of faith or rules of practice. 

But suppose this arrangement had been adopted, 
would it have carried with it any advantage to us? 
Think for a moment! How much more pleasant is it 
to wander over a broad and beautiful field, with its 
graceful undulations, its alternate lights and shades, 
and its freshly-growing plants with the dew upon their 
leaves and the mould about their roots, than to walk in 
the straight, hard, level and narrow path of a garden 
which is entirely the product of constant labor and 
forced culture ! How much less agreeable to traverse 
such a confined and stiff enclosure, all of Avhich falls 
under the eye at a single glance, leaving no variety to 
delight and no discoveries to be made as the step ad- 
vances, than to pass over an expanded territory on 
which the systematizing influence of art has not yet 
been broughl (<» bear, with heights and valleys, forests 
and streams, on the right and left of our path and close 
about us, full of concealed wonders and choice treasures! 

Now, this is i he manner in which (he Scriptures have 



106 THE PARABLES OF JESUS. 

been given to us ; and it is impossible not to perceive 
the wisdom which it indicates. As thus before us, 
these holy oracles constitute an abiding stimulus to 
research and an unfailing source of variety and interest. 
" It is only/' says one, " when our energies are roused 
and our attention awake, when we are acquiring or cor- 
recting or improving our knowledge, that knowledge 
makes the requisite impression upon us. God has not 
made Scripture like a garden, where the fruits are ripe 
and the flowers bloom, and all things are fully exposed 
to our view, but like a field, where we have the ground 
and seed of all precious things, but where nothing can 
be brought to view without our industry, nor then 
without the dews of heavenly grace." 

This " treasure " may be considered as having been 
hidden in the ancient types and sacrifices. These ail 
contained the germs or seeds of gospel truth. They all 
referred to the Messiah and the salvation he came to 
accomplish. He was the Rock whose streams followed 
the Israel of God, and the Manna, the true Bread that 
came down from heaven. He was the City of Refuge 
for security from avenging justice, and his atonement 
Mas foreshadowed by every bleeding sacrifice. The 
same thing may be affirmed in relation to the Old Tes- 
tament predictions and promises. These all testified of 
Christ, and referred to his advent, work, offices, suffer- 
ings and glory. "To him gave all the prophets wit- 
ness." Yet in their dim significance and their meta- 
phorical costume and figurative style the gospel was 
rather hidden than fully revealed in those types and 
predictions. Thus was it also when Jesus appeared 
among men. His kingdom was still hidden. Only a 
few fishermen and here and there a ruler discovered the 



THE HIDDEN TREASURE. 107 

precious deposit, and drew from it enough to enrich 
themselves for ever; to the multitude it was still un- 
known. Even, indeed, after our Lord had fully de- 
clared his mission and finished his work ; after he had 
died for our sins, and risen again for our justification; 
after his disciples through the ministry of the Spirit 
had published the glad tidings in many lands, — even 
then the treasure still lay hidden. Those who found it 
found out at the same time that they had been almost 
treading on it for years, and yet were ignorant of its ex- 
istence and worth. So is it now. The treasure is near 
men, but they see it not. Their minds, as Paul says, 
are blinded. " The god of this world hath blinded the 
minds of them which believe not;" "The natural man 
receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God, for they 
are foolishness unto him, neither can he know them, 
because they are spiritually discerned." 

We do not believe that the treasure of the gospel is 
hidden in the sense that God desires to conceal it from 
men. It is hidden by their own unwillingness to recog- 
nize it. Their affections are so wedded to the earthly 
and the temporal that they have no relish for the 
sjii ritual and the everlasting. Besides, from their very 
youth they have been walking on this field, and are so 
much accustomed to certain influences of Christianity, 
so familial- with its doctrines from their ever-recurring 
opportunities of hearing the word, that their very 
familiarity with that word generates indifference to it, 
and blinds them to the priceless treasure it contains. 

" Long years before Australia's treasures were brought 
to light many shepherds had gone from other lands 1<» 
herd their flocks on its boundless pastures; the hut of 
the squatter had encroached on the hunting-grounds, 



108 THE PARABLES OF JESUS. 

and his axe had sounded in the forests of the wondering 
savage; and there, earning only a bare subsistence, far 
removed from the homes and friends of their love, with- 
out hope of improving their condition or returning with 
a fortune, many had pined and drooped. Yet all the 
while a fortune lay hid beneath the exile's feet; the 
roots of the tree under whose shadow he reclined, recall- 
ing scenes and friends far away, were matting rocks of 
gold, and from the bed of the stream where he quenched 
his thirst, thousands, with thirst for gold burning as his, 
came afterward to draw splendid fortunes, vaulting^ at 
once from abject poverty to the heights of affluence." * 
So is there a treasure of infinitely greater value lying 
all around us, and it is only for us to search for it that 
we may make it our own, and that it may enrich us 
with the blessings of peace on earth and ineffable glory 
in heaven. 

It is possible to find a treasure hidden in a field by 
accident. This seems to have been the case with the 
man in the parable. It is probable that he had passed 
by the spot where the treasure was a hundred times, had 
trodden it down with his feet, but he never suspected 
what lay so near till the day when perhaps the plough- 
share, in turning up the soil, disclosed what was beneath. 
In like manner, though there is nothing casual in the 
salvation of a sinner as to God, yet as to himself the 
event may be wholly undesigned and unlooked for. 
Thus there is a fulfillment of what is written in Isaiah : 
" I was found of them that sought me not, I was made 
manifest to them that asked not after me." 

And just here, be it observed, is the point of difference 
between this parable and the one of the Pearl succeeding 
* Thomas Guthrie, D. D. 



THE HIDDEN TREASURE. 109 

it. " That parable represents all those persons who feel 
that there must be some absolute good for man, in the 
possession of which he shall be blessed and find the 
satisfaction of all his longings, and who are therefore 
seeking everywhere and inquiring for this good. This 
parable represents those who do not discover that there 
is an aim and a purpose for man's life, that there is a 
truth for him at all, until the truth as it is in Jesus is 
revealed to them." It shows that God will have mercy 
on whom he will have mercy, that salvation is of grace 
and not of merit, and that he sometimes bestows it 
where it has never been sought. Hence it does not pre- 
suppose a seeking, except as all acting and striving on 
the part of man is a seeking after a treasure, after well- 
being, repose, peace. 

Look at some examples of this. Matthew was sitting 
at the receipt of custom when the Saviour said, "Follow 
me." Curiosity to see Jesus led Zaccheus to throw him- 
self into the crowd, and finally to climb the sycamore 
under whose branches he was to pass, but besides a sight 
of the Saviour he obtained a hold of salvation. The 
Samaritan woman came to draw water from the well, 
but she received also the water of life. 

As the past history, so the present experience of the 
Church, shows that some suddenly stumble, as it were, 
upon salvation when they neither expected nor desired 
to find it. It is said of Colonel Gardiner, who was a 
lover not only of pleasure, but of the basest pleasures, 
that the eventful night which he so unexpectedly spent 
in prayer he had intended to spend in sin. As he impa- 
tiently watched the finger of the clock moving slowly 
on to the hour of a guilty assignation, nothing was 
further Prom his thoughts than conversion, and had 



110 THE PARABLES OF JESUS. 

Death himself, throwing open his chamber-door, 
before him in visible form, he had not been more 
startled than by the blow, dealt by an unseen hand. 
which laid him penitent at the feet of Jesus. 

A youth leaves his home in the country and plunges 
into a city to push his fortune, and finds there what he 
did not seek — pardon of sin and peace with Gofl through 
the Saviour. A young lady is invited to a fashionable 
party, but at the threshold of the prepared festivity a 
message meets her — a message charged with a mighty 
sorrow, which banishes joyful anticipations from her 
heart ; she is thrown aside in solitude, and in the aching 
emptiness of her soul the knocking of Christ from 
without is for the first time heard. She finds a treasure 
which, though often near her before, had hitherto escaped 
her notice. Some have gone to the house of God from 
mere custom or curiosity or a design to ridicule, but 
have remained to pray, and have said, " Lord, what 
wilt thou have me to do?" "But," says Matthew 
Henry, " though he is sometimes found of them that 
seek him not, he is always found of them that seek 
him." 

By the representation of the man hiding the freeware 
after he had found it, it is not meant that he who has 
discovered the treasures of wisdom and knowledge that 
are hidden in Christ Jesus will desire to keep that knowl- 
edge to himself. Rather, indeed, will such an one feel 
himself a debtor to all men, to make all men see what is 
the fellowship of the mystery that is hid in Christ. He 
will act as Andrew did toward Philip. The spirit of 
the gospel unlocks the heart, and spreads wide the arms 
to all who may either profit ourselves or receive any 
advantage from our society. Indeed, a cordial desire to 



THE HIDDEN TREASURE. HI 

make others "partakers of the benefit," to throw open 
to them the gate of life, is inseparable from true relig- 
ion. But the finder of the treasure in the parable is 
eager to secure it, and that he may do so must conceal 
the knowledge of it from others. He told of it to no 
one, but went and sold all that he had and bought the field. 
When once the heart is awakened to a sense of the pre- 
ciousness of the gospel, then there is a change indeed. 
Other things lose much of their value ; the soul is felt 
to be of the deepest importance, and the good news of 
salvation through Christ is prized above all. To gain a 
share in this salvation, to be forgiven, reconciled and 
saved, this is now felt to be the great concern, and all 
else seems of comparatively trifling moment. Our Sa- 
viour taught us that there is but one thing needful. 
Even so must we embrace the gospel. We must seek 
salvation as the chief good; we must be willing to part 
with all for Christ's sake. No bosom sin must be spared, 
no vain attempt must be made to serve two masters ; all 
that stands in the way of our souls must be freely parted 
with. We must " buy the truth " at every sacrifice, and 
"sell it not." We must yield ourselves and all we 
have to Christ. This purchase of course does not imply 
any meritorious acts on the part of the sinner. We can 
offer no equivalent for the possession. We must buy 
"without money and without price." The meaning is 
simply exchange, as in buying we part with something 
to gain something, thus showing our estimation. We 
cannot merit salvation. 

" Whal is all righteousness that men devise? 
Whal but a sordid bargain for the skies? 
But ( liii-i as soon would abdicate his own 
\ stoop from heaven tn sell the proud a throne." 



112 THE PARABLES OF JESTS. 

It should not be overlooked that when the man dis- 
covered the treasure it was "for joy thereof he went 
and sold all that he had, in order to buy the field that 
contained it. This joy, it has been well said, is, on the 
spiritual side, an essential element in the case. If it la 
wanting, the business will at some stage certainly mis- 
carry, the transaction will never be completed. One 
love in a human heart cannot be overcome and de- 
stroyed except by another. Love of the world will 
not yield to fear, even though the fear be a fear of 
God's anger. It cannot be overcome and cast out until 
another and greater love has been brought against it. 
The man who has, by the teaching of God's Spirit, been 
made acquainted with the preciousness of the gospel, 
feels joy thereof— not that firm and glorious joy which 
arises in the established Christian from a consciousness 
of possession, but the joy of the patient in hearing of 
the arrival of the physician whose remedy was never 
applied in vain— the joy that results from the discovery 
of the reality, the excellency, the suitableness, the all- 
sufficiency, the attainableness of the blessing, and is 
called "rejoicing in hope." Hence the choice is not 
difficult ; everything is given up for the attainment of 
the highest good, as the mariner in a tempestuous sea 
readily parts with all, that he may save his life. What- 
ever there may have been of sacrifice before, there is now 
no more; self-denial is no longer painful; it is joy and 
bliss. What no external violence could have torn from 
the heart^-the love of the world, fleshly wisdom, self- 
righteousness— all is abandoned. Such was the feeling 
of Paul. As a member of the Jewish community, and 
observing rigidly its Levitical observances, he had, at 
( ,ne time, to use 'his own language, great "confidence in 



THE HIDDEN TREASURE. 113 

the flesh " — i. e. great reliance on his own righteous- 
ness — but Avhen he was arrested on his persecuting jour- 
ney, and made to see the truth as it is in Jesus, when 
the scales had fallen from his eyes and he beheld the 
long-hidden treasure before him, then he quickly aban- 
doned all that he held most dear, saying, " What things 
were gain to me, those I counted loss for Christ. Yea, 
doubtless, and I count all things but loss for the excel- 
lency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, for 
whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and do 
count them but dung, that I may win Christ." 

This is the very spirit of the man finding the hid 
treasure. He puts upon it its true value ; he estimates 
everything else as comparatively worthless ; he feels the 
force of the Saviour's assertion, " He that loveth father 
or mother more than me is not worthy of me," and that 
if we would be his disciples we must " forsake all and 
follow him." In the spirit of these injunctions he is 
ready to give up everything that conflicts with his getting 
possession of these hid treasures of the gospel. 

This surrender is, too, cheerfully made — not as an arbi- 
trary condition imposed from without, but rather from a 
delightful constraint acknowledged within ; even as a 
man would willingly fling down pebbles and mosses, 
which hitherto he had been gathering, and with which 
he had filled his hands, if pearls and rubies were offered 
to him. The man sees things as he did not before. 

Two aeronauts, hanging in the mid-air, looked down 
on the earth from their balloon and wondered to see how 
small great things had grown : ample fields were con- 
tracted into little patches ; the lake was no bigger than 
a looking-glass ; the broad river, with ships floating on 
ite bosom, seemed like a silver snake; the widespread 
lo 



114 THE PARABLES OF JESUS. 

city was reduced to the dimensions of a village; the 
long, rapid, flying train appeared but a black caterpillar 
.lowly creeping over the surface of the ground. Such 
changes the world undergoes to the eyes of him who, 
rising to hold communion with God and anticipating the 
joys of heaven, lives above it and looks beyond it. 
This makes it easy, and even joyful, to part with all for 
Christ; this is the victory that overcometh the world, 
even our faith. 



*T2£* PEARL* 



"Are virtue, then, and piety the same? 
No, piety is more; 'tis virtue's source, 
Mother of every worth, as that of joy." 

115 



45 Again, the kingdom of heaven is like unto a merchant man, seek- 

46 ™g goodly pearls : Who, when he had found one pearl of great 
price, went and sold all that he had, and bought it." 

Matt. xiii. 45, 46. 
116 



THE PEARL. 



IT is by no means one of the least recommendations 
of the parables of our blessed Lord that they bring 
moral subjects out of the dim region of speculation into 
the world of living realities. Men need to be addressed 
in this way, so much are they of this world in their 
modes of thinking, feeling and acting. By this means 
the truth is dropped into the main channel of their life, 
blended with their common associations and exhibited 
to them in familiar attire, and thus is most likely to 
secure for itself a lodgment in their hearts and win for 
itself a permanent influence in the formation of their 
character. 

The circumstances introduced into the body of this 
parable are in accordance with the most authentic account 
we have of Palestine. In all the countries of antiquity 
pearls obtained the preference over all other trinkets 
worn as ornaments for the person. They occupied the 
place that diamonds do among us. Although the Jewish 

ladies, In con n with their Eastern neighbors, are 

known to have set a high value on them at an early 
period, their rage for these beautiful jewels received a 
fresh impulse from their connection with the Romans. 
Thai people, in the lime of the emperors, were most 
prodigal in the use of tliis superfluity. Julius Csesar 



118 THE PARABLES OF JESUS. 

endeavored to check the growing extravagance with re- 
gard to pearls by prohibiting them from being worn 
except by persons of a certain rank and age and on par- 
ticular occasions, but the power of fashion proved too 
great for that of the legislature. The public taste for 
the profuse display of pearls continued on the increase, 
and, as from Rome it soon spread into the provinces, 
persons of all ranks among the Jews bought them with 
avidity. The wives and daughters of inferior officers 
and tradesmen vied with their superiors in the display 
of these ornaments, wore them on every part of their 
dress, and were ready to part with their whole fortunes 
in order to gratify their vanity by the possession of these 
costly gems. 

We are not to regard this parable and the one which 
precedes it as being identical. They are closely allied, 
yet the one is by no means a mere repetition of the other. 
The word " Again " with which it is introduced shows 
that the Saviour is passing to a new form or phase of 
thought. Each is the complement of the other. The 
finder of the hidden treasure represents those who do 
not discover that there is a purpose for man's life, and 
consequently give themselves little if any thought about 
a new life or the hope of a blessed eternity, but to whom, 
nevertheless, the truth as it is in Jesus is revealed, in 
accordance with the prediction : I was found of them that 
sought me not. But here he who obtained the kingdom 
of heaven is no longer represented merely as a fortunate 
finder, but as an earnest, active and untiring seeker. It 
may also be noted that as the former parable illustrates 
the hidden character of divine truth, so this illustrates 
its unsurpassed beauty and value. 

The pearl is a small, silvery, hard, smooth, lustrous 



THE PEARL. 119 

substance, globular, oval or pear-shaped, found iu the 
interior of the shells of many species of mollusks, par- 
ticularly of the pearl-oyster, apparently resulting from 
the deposit of the nacreous substance around some 
nucleus. The art of covering a baser substance of any 
shape with gold or silver by the process of electroplating 
is an analogous operation. Pearls are found in the 
Persian Sea and in the ocean which washes the shores 
of Arabia and the continent and isles of Asia. They 
are brought up from the marine depths by professional 
divers. These, armed with pointed staves, plunge into 
water four or five fathoms deep, and when they find a 
pearl-bearing oyster, rise to the surface and deposit their 
prize in a sack hung to the vessel's side. This they 
continue to do until they are exhausted or their time 
of labor is over. " Some air-bells bubbling up, and 
blood that spreads crimsoning the surface of the sea, 
are all that is ever more seen of one who dies a sacrifice 
to his hazardous pursuit; and the story of the dangers 
which pearl-fishers have always to encounter and the 
dreadful deaths they have often to endure will recall to 
a reflective mind the memory of Him who purchased 
tie' pearl of salvation at so great a price, giving his 
life for ours, and dying, the just for the unjust, that 
he might bring us to God." 

There is much difference of value even in real pearls. 
There are many defects which materially diminish their 
worth — as, for instance, if they have a yellow or dusky 
tinge or are not absolutely round or smooth. But there 
are pearls that are not real. There are some which are 
hastened in their growth in the oyster. This is done 
by the people of two Chinese villages near the city of 
Tehtsine by the introduction within the shells of living 



120 THE PARABLES OF JESUS. 

mollusks of "moulds," and when the moulds are re- 
moved they are cut away from the nacre, and " melted 
resin is poured into the cavity, and the orifice artfully 
covered by a piece of mother-of-pearl." There are also 
imitation pearls. These are made in Paris, being lined 
with fish-scales and wax, the scales being stripped from 
the fish while living, that the hue of the real pearl may 
not fail to be imitated. Much skill and wariness is 
therefore required on the part of those purchasing them 
now, as was doubtless the case in former days also. 
This itinerant merchant man was seeking goodly pearls, 
such as were of more than ordinary quality and value. 
Hence his search was determinate and discriminative. 
Whom does he represent? 

Deep and dark is that abyss of misery into which man 
has been precipitated by his deplorable fall. He has 
lost not only the possession, but also the knowledge, of 
his chief good. He has no distinct notion of what it is 
or of the means of recovering it. Yet the human mind, 
though stunned and weakened by so dreadful a lapse, 
still retains some faint idea of the good it has lost. It 
has also a languid sense of its misery. From this arise 
some efforts of the mind, like those of one groping in 
the dark, but with a fruitless search. All men desire 
to attain true enjoyment, and though, alas ! they often 
run themselves upon misery under the guise of happi- 
ness, yet even from this fatal error it is evident that 
they naturally pursue either real happiness, or what to 
their mistaken judgment appears to be such. Nor can 
the mind divest itself of this propensity without divest- 
ing itself of its being. As the Schoolmen say, " The 
will is carried toward happiness, not simply as will, 
but as nature." 



THE PEARL. 121 

Bat whilst all men are seeking happiness, some have 
higher conceptions of it than others. They are not, as 
the unthinking mass, violently carried away like brutes 
by a kind of secret impulse toward such enjoyments as 
fall in their way. They look not for the object of their 
desire in eating, drinking, sleeping or in being easy, gay 
and merry. They have higher aspirations and nobler 
aims than these. Once they may have been earthly and 
sensual in their tastes and pursuits, but their experience 
has taught them a lesson. Even the abundance which 
they then had has shown them the emptiness of the 
world's ordinary resources. Even the variety they then 
had has shown them how unable the world's common 
possessions are to meet the desires of an immortal mind. 
As they passed on in their pursuits they found them- 
selves beguiled and cheated in every promise of true 
happiness, and their deep conviction now is that of 
Solomon, who sailed round the world to obtain this 
jewel, and finally returned after a tedious voyage with 
his hope disappointed, and exclaiming, "Vanity of 
vanities, all is vanity!" They now feel that there must 
be some absolute good for man, in the possession of 
which he shall be blessed and find the satisfaction of 
all his longings, and therefore they are seeking every- 
where and inquiring for this good. Some seek it in 
philosophy. They have retreated from the bustle and 
tin i iii-moil of life; they are seeking enjoyment in calm 
contemplation on the relations of things and on the ab- 
Btraci questions of philosophic inquiry. Others, men 
of leisure and of taste, find their enjoyment in the pur- 
nut of eleganf literature. Their time is spent in belles- 
lettres, in the records of* historic truth or in the world 
of poetry and of fiction. Others, still, are pursuing 
1 1 



122 THE PARABLES OF JESUS. 

patriotic and philanthropic objects, seeking to be good 
and to do good as they have opportunity. All these 
an- persuaded that man's happiness cannot lie in grati- 
fications which arc allied to' those of the inferior crea- 
tion, or in empty gayety, or in the common prizes of 
ambition, or in any amount of money. 

There cannot be much difficulty, then, in determining 
whom this merchant man represents. He stands for any 
person seeking happiness or good for himself. Certain- 
ly he represents an aicakened soul seeking peace. Such 
a man is not a mere seeker after happiness generally. 
He has been roused to a sense of religion ; his con- 
science has been touched. He is so far enlightened, so 
far awakened, as to have become thoroughly dissatisfied 
with his own condition, and has received strong im- 
pressions of the odiousness of sin and of the beauty of 
holiness. But he has not yet found peace. He is seek- 
ing, inquiring, using means. He is conscious of his 
need, and sincerely sets about endeavoring to get what 
he wants. Simeon waited for the Consolation of Israel. 
Philip announced it to Xathanael as a thing which he 
knew would rejoice his heart, " We have found Him 
of whom Moses in the law, and the prophets, did write, 
Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph." 

John Bunyan had come to know that the world and 
its pleasures could never satisfy the cravings of his 
heart. He felt the need of being other than he was. 
As an imprisoned eagle, chained to its perch and turn- 
ing its eye up to the blue heavens, feels the strivings of 
a native instinct, and, springing upward, beats the bars 
of its cage with bleeding wings, Bunyan tried to rise 
out of his estate of sin and misery. He made vigorous 
efforts to keep the law of God, to live without sin, to 



THE PEARL. 123 

establish a righteousness of his own, to work out a sum 
of merits, and thereby obtain peace and pardon, and 
reconcile himself to God. Seeking the pardon of sin, a 
purer life and a holier heart, lie had been a merchant 
seeking " goodly pearls," and in seeking he found, for 
he was led to Him who is " the way, the truth, and the 
life." 

The treasurer of the Ethiopian queen was precisely 
such a merchant. He occupied the highest office in a 
kingdom, he stood on the steps of the throne and had 
charge of the royal treasury, but he counted himself 
poor notwithstanding. He must go in search of more 
precious pearls than these. Peace of conscience, right- 
eonsnesSj hope for eternity, — these are goodlier pearls 
than any that can be found in Ethiopia, and the man 
undertook a journey to Jerusalem to try if he could find 
them there. Disappointed there, he was on his way 
home, seeking still for the. pearls, and seeking near the 
very spot in the Scriptures where the one priceless 
Pearl lav, when Philip met him, by whose skillful help 
lie found it and went on his way rejoicing. 

Many persons, indeed, of this description are to be 
found — persons who have, like Timothy, been carefully 
instructed in the Scriptures "from a child," or who, 
like Samuel, have early been impressed with divine 
truth, and wlio. possessing earnest and inquiring minds, 
anxiously seek for that which will satisfy and comfort 
t lie soul. They deliberately set themselves to seek the 
truth. They are not careless and ignorant persons, but 
ol' meditative mind-, of tender consciences, of craving 
soul.-, who believe that there are "goodly pearls" of 
grace to \,r found in God's word, and who diligently 

seek them. 



124 THE PARABLES OF JESUS. 

What does the pearl mean? Evidently salvation. 
This is the prize of the gospel, the -rent blessing of 
"the kingdom of heaven," the fruit of the coming and 
sacrifice of Christ. Indeed, (Christ himself may be said 
to be the Pearl, in the sense in which the apostle says: 
"But what things were gain to me, those I counted loss 
for Christ, . . . that I might win Christ." It makes 
little difference whether we consider the pearl to be the 
Saviour himself or the salvation which he wrought out, 
for to have a part in Christ is to be saved by him, and 
this is the " pearl of great price." 

The pearl which the merchant man found was, as has 
been well remarked, a remarkable as well as beautiful 
emblem in several respects— in, for instance, a color of 
snowy whiteness, a purity unclouded by the slightest 
haze, and a form so round and polished and perfect 
that 'it was impossible to improve it. The lapidary, to 
whose skill in grinding the very diamond owes much 
of its brilliancy and those many-colored fires with which 
it shines and 'burns, may not touch a pearl. His art 
cannot add to its beauty, the polish of its surface or 
the perfection of its rounded form. What an emblem, 
therefore, is this gem of that salvation which came per- 
fect from the hand of God— of that righteousness of 
Jesus Christ which, as no guilt of ours can stain, no 
works of ours can improve! 

The contrast between the one pearl which the mer- 
chant finds and the many which he had been seeking 
is by no means to be overlooked. Here we learn that 
when the awakened sinner is sincerely desirous to be 
invested with the beauty of holiness, then he discovers 
that in Christ everything necessary for this is to be 
found. He discovers that if he obtains Christ, he geto 



THE PEARL. 125 

"all things" besides— that if he "put on Christ," it 
is the certain and the only way in which he can put 
away what is vile and unworthy, and be clothed with 
such a salvation as shall not only be a covering for 
him in the way of pardon, but shall be glorious apparel 
in which he may walk adorned with all the gifts and 
graces of the Spirit of God. There is but " one pearl," 
for God and Truth and the Faith and the Church 
are one. 

That which this pearl represents is the only restorer 
of unity to man's divided and distracted heart. There 
is neither harmony nor unity in the earthly objects of 
men's pursuits, nor is there in the means they use to 
secure them. If a man will be rich, he must restrain 
himself in gratifying his appetites, and perhaps use 
artifices that may stain his honor. If he would be 
honorable, he must often be prodigal of his riches and 
abstain from sordid pleasures. If he would have the 
full enjoyment of sensual pleasures, he must squander 
his riches and injure his honor. The lusts of men, 
as well as their objects, are various and contradictory. 
( lovetousness and sensuality, pride and tranquillity, envy 
and the love of ease, and a thousand jarring passions, 
maintain a constant fight in the sinner's breast. He is 
drawn this way and that, tossed from wave to wave, 
and there is no steadiness or uniformity in his pursuits. 

How does religion, consisting in union with, and 
enjoyment of, God through Christ, contrast with these 
Bad effects <>}' sin! If earthly things, which arc Infin- 
itely various and stand in manifold contrasts with one 
another, involve the soul that passionately clings to 
them in a confused, restless chase, heavenly things, on 
the contrary, are harmonious in holy unison, and are 



126 THE PARABLES OF JESUS. 

alone able to bring true unity and abiding peace into 
the life of him who devotes himself to them with his 
whole soul. The discord in which the changing and 
contradictory impressions of the outward world involve 
lis, this the one precious pearl is able to end. The 
wounds which the earthly life inflicts upon us, this 
pearl is able to heal. The believer may triumphant- 
ly say, 

" Thou, < > ( Ihrist, art all I want — 
All-in-all in thee I find." 

It is even so. The truth possessed brings that unity 
into the heart of man which siu had destroyed: that 
which through sin had become as a mirror shattered 
into a thousand fragments, and every fragment reflect- 
ing some different object, is now united again, and the 
whole with more or less clearness reflects, as it was in- 
tended at first to do, the one image of God. "It is 
God alone in whom any intelligent creature can find its 
centre and true repose j only when man has found him 
does the great Eureka! break forth from his lips in 
Augustine's beautiful and often-quoted words: 'Lord, 
thou hast made us for thee, and our heart is disquieted 
till it reacheth to thee.'" 

This pearl is of great price* First, in view of its 

* Some pearls among the ancients were of immense value. Pliny- 
mentions that he had seen Lollia Paulina, the widow of Caligula, 
covered, head, neck, ears and fingers, with strings of pearls and 
emeralds placed alternately— plunder collected by her grandfather 
Lollius. The two largest pearls ever known, according to the histo- 
rian just quoted, were both in possession of Cleopatra, queen of 
Egypt, and worn by her as ornaments. Each of these was valued 
at ten million sesterces, about four hundred thousand dollars. One 
she dissolved and drank off at a supper which she gave to Mark 
Antony; the other was brought to Rome by Augustus, and was 



THE PEARL. 127 

procurement. It is a well-known fact that objects and 
actions are frequently estimated according to the quality 
of the individual concerned in them. If that individual 
be exalted in rank or character, the eminence of his 
station gives weight to his deeds, insomuch that things 
in themselves unimportant derive consequence from his 
being concerned in them, and things of acknowledged 
excellence acquire a value increased according to the 
eminence of the person from whom they proceed. Try 
our redemption by this criterion, and see the result. 
Its Author Mas none other than the eternal Son of God. 
jSTo angel could make atonement for our sins.' So far 
as we have the power of ascertaining, no being but the 
divine, taking to himself flesh, could have satisfied jus- 
tice in the stead of fallen men. It is not, we admit, 
for such worms of the dust as we to limit the Mighty 
One whose understanding is infinite. Yet it may be 
safely affirmed that the plan which God has adopted 
for reconciling the world unto himself is the best that 
could have been adopted. And if this be true, inas- 
much as it is impossible that a Being infinitely wise 
••an do other than what is best, it follows, of course, 
that God's sending his Son to die for as was the only 
plan which even divine wisdom could employ on our 
behalf. 

Now, think of the greatness and glory of the appointed 
Mediator ! He was the Second Person of the ever-blessed 
Trinity — " Jehovah's fellow," who is "exalted far above 

divided into two, which were attached as pendants to the ears of the 
statue of Venus in the Pantheon. Julius ( Isesar presented Servilia, the 
mother of Brutus, with a pearl worth six million sesterces. Augustus 
dedicated al onetime in the treasury of Jupiter Capitolinus jewels 
and pearls to the value of fifty million Besterces— two million dollars. 



128 THE PARABLES OF JESUS. 

every name that is named in heaven, or on earth or under 
the earth/' and who " thought it not robbery to be equal 
with God." He it was who, compassionating the ruin 
which transgression had brought on this earth, assumed 
<»ur nature and died our death. It was lie, who is the 
" brightness of the Father's glory, and the express image 
of his person," that " redeemed us from the curse of the 
law." It was " Jehovah- Jesus " who "became the Au- 
thor of ete'rnal salvation unto all them that obey him." 
Our salvation was bought by the blood of the Son of 
God. How, then, can we know "the price, all price 
beyond," at which our salvation was purchased until we 
can measure the distance between the eternal and the 
perishable, omnipotence and feebleness, immortality and 
death ? 

This pearl is of great price also in view of it- personal 
relative value. " To them that believe he is precious." 
Who can estimate the value of the great salvation to its 
possessor? The man delivered by the gospel is not 
rescued merely from death, or merely from annihilation, 
or merely from the agony of the body or temporary 
agony of the soul. He is saved from the " worm that 
never dies" and the " fire that is not quenched "—from 
a worm and from a fire which, whatever be their precise 
nature, are described as wasting without destroying, as 
tormenting the immortal man without extinguishing life 
or the capacity of suffering. 

Not merely, however, does this salvation include an 
.■mancipation from all evil, but an introduction to all 
g 00( j — to good unlike that of the present state, where 
everything that is pure is soiled with impurity, every- 
thing bright shaded with darkness, and where evil con- 
stantly struggles with good, and too often overcomes it. 



THE PEARL. 129 

The good of heaven is good without any mixture of evil. 
Search the sacred record and observe the picture there 
displayed to us of the joys of our Father's kingdom — 
of that temple of which God is the light and glory. 
There, it is said, the delighted worshipers " see his face," 
and his " Name shall be on their foreheads," " and they 
shall reign for ever and ever;" "They are before the 
throne of God, and serve him day and night in his tem- 
ple ; . . . . and He that sitteth on the throne shall dwell 
among them ;" " The inhabitant shall not say, I am sick : 
the people that dwell therein shall be forgiven their 
iniquity;" "God shall wipe away all tears from their 
eyes." But why multiply quotations on a theme so 
familiar? Can any man have caught the faintest 
glimpse of the splendors and joys of the world of spirits, 
and not feel his bosom throb with "joy unspeakable" as 
he thinks of the amazing mercy of God by which the 
portals of that world are thrown open to him, and a way 
of approach provided to the water of life and the tree 
of life which is in the midst of the paradise of God ? 

Nor only this : the happiness of heaven is unchange- 
able. True happiness must have a solid basis ; it must 
be above change, vicissitude or contingency. Happiness 
cannot be found in a palace if that palace may at any 
moment fall down; in a cottage if the wind may at any 
moment sweep it away; in beauty that must soon fade; 
in health and strength that must soon become feeble; in 
a scene of pleasure if it may soon be succeeded by grief. 

The ox may graze with delight in the rich pasturage, 
though it is then only fattening for the slaughter ; and 
the ephemeroD may whirl with ecstasy in the beams of a 
summer sun, though the termination of its existence is 
to be witnessed by the evening of the day whose morn- 



130 THE PARABLES OF JESUS. 

ing brought it into being ; and the bird may sing gayly 
amid the vernal foliage, though the hunter's deadly aim 
may at any time lay it, struggling and gasping, in the 
dust. But thus it cannot be with man, whose nature 
enables and prompts him to look into the future, and 
who by a resistless necessity is obliged to think whether 
to-morrow shall be as this day, and dares to hope that it 
will be "more abundant." Man in order to be happy 
must have something beyond which he cannot extend his 
desires. He is always progressive, and as his capacity 
expands, so must there be objects presented to him cor- 
responding with this enlargement of his views, aims and 
desires. He must have a fountain of enjoyment whose 
supplies he can use without reducing their power to 
gratify, and whose depths he can sound without feeling 
that their full amplitude is known. 

Such a happiness as this it is that religion secures to 
its possessor. The man who finds the "pearl of great 
price" is at once installed in the possession of all the 
benefits and immunities of the Kedeemer's purchase; 
lie emerges from under the dark shadows of the fall, that 
mighty and mysterious eclipse of humanity, into the 
effulgence of the light and the plenitude of the joy of a 
renovated, heaven-born nature, and the silent tide of 
oblivion instantly closes for ever over his past sins. A 
title to all the dignity and glory of heaven is made out 
for him, which nothing in time or eternity can alienate 
or rescind ; and in the endless future, separated from him 
only by "the narrow stream of death," there awaits him 
an inheritance in which the dominion of uncertainty and 
change is unknown, and destined to increase as intermi- 
nable ages roll away. 

He went and sold all that he had, and bought it. Easy 



THE PEARL. 131 

is it to understand why this man acted as he did. He 
was persuaded that the pearl he had found was so im- 
mensely valuable that it would reward him to purchase 
it at any cost. He was satisfied that it was worth a great 
present sacrifice to make this pearl his own. Others 
might think him foolish, but he knew what he was about : 
he was sure that he was making a good bargain. 

Behold in this picture the conduct of a true Christian 
explained ! He is what he is, and does what he does in 
his religion, because he is thoroughly persuaded that it 
is worth while. He sells all that he has and buys the 
pearl. We are not to strain this metaphor, as if it were 
to imply that by any valuable consideration whatever 
we can merit this inestimable treasure. It teaches that 
Ave must be fully determined to submit to the cost of 
procuring it, whatever it may be. The Christian gives 
such a decided preference to Christ above all worldly 
things whatever as to be willing to part with them all 
should they stand in the way of his obtaining his grace, 
his righteousness and his salvation. Neither will he 
do this merely as complying with an arbitrary condition 
that God has appointed, but rather will he do it cheer- 
fully as the effect of a delightful constraint. We must 
make a choice and a sacrifice to evince our preference 
and attain our desire. Some things must be absolutely 
given up, some conditionally. And all, as to supreme 
regard and dependence — the promises of superiors, the 
applause of companions, the smiles of friends, the ties 
of the dearest relations, for " he that loveth father or 
mother more than me is not worthy of me." Sinful in- 
dulgences most also be given up. This splendid jewel 
would look ill upon him who is covered with the de- 
formity of -infill practices; and however dear these 



132 THE PA BAULKS OF JESTS. 

indulgences may be, and though the parting with them 
may be painful as the plucking out of the right eye or 
the cutting off of the right hand, it must be done. 

Augustine, the African bishop (who lived four hun- 
dred years after Christ), endured many sharp struggles 
before he would consent to part with his sins ; but at 
length the grace of God subdued his stubborn heart. 
He cast himself down before the Lord under a fig 
tree and prayed, saying, " How long, Lord, wilt thou 
be angry? For ever? Remember not mine old in- 
iquities. How long shall I say ' To-morrow ' ? Why 
should not this hour put an end to my slavery ?" God, 
by whose Spirit this prayer was suggested, answered it 
and revealed Christ to Augustine's soul. Then this 
man, once so miserable, could say, " How sweet was it 
in a moment to be free from those delightful vanities, 
to love that which had been my dread, to part with 
which was now my joy ! Thou didst cast them out, O 
my true and highest Delight; and thou, oh sweeter 
than all pleasure ! enteredst in their room ! How was 
my mind set free from the gnawing cares of sinful 
passions, and I conversed intimately with thee, my 
Light, my Riches, my Saviour and my God !" 

How great encouragement have those that seek the 
Lord! Their success is sure. This is the case in no 
other pursuit. In the fields of worldly labor we may 
spend our strength in vain. But their heart shall live 
that seek God. He that goeth forth and weepeth, bear- 
ing precious seed, shall doubtless return again with re- 
joicing, bringing his sheaves with him. 



♦THE*DMW~NET# 



"See how, beneath the moonbeam's smile, 
Yon little billow heaves its breast, 
And foams and sparkles for a while, 
Then, murmuring, subsides to rest. 
Thus man, the sport of bliss and eare, 

Rises on time's eventful sea, 
And, having swelled a moment there, 
Thus melts into eternity." 
12 133 



47 Again, the kingdom of heaven is like unto a net, that was cast 

48 into the sea, and gathered of every kind: Which, zvhen it was full, 
they drew to shore, and sat down, and gathered the good into vessels, 

40 but cast the bad away. So shall it be at the end of the world: the 
angels shall come forth, and sever the wicked from among the just, 
jo And shall cast them into the furnace of fire : there shall be wailing 
and gnashing of teeth. 

Matt. xiii. 47-50. 
134 



THE DRAW-NET. 



r I ^HE parables of our Lord were calculated to inter- 
-*- est all classes of persons. Through them laborers, 
sowers, shepherds and fishermen, all had divine truth 
brought down to their capacity. That there was a 
special fitness in the utterance of this parable at Caper- 
naum is evident at a glance. The Sea of Tiberias, 
which washed that seaport, opened in its fisheries a 
lucrative branch of trade to the inhabitants, and whether 
any of the hearers of Christ were so engaged or were 
connected merely by their locality with the watery ele- 
ment, they would all have sufficient acquaintance with 
a fisherman's occupation and habits to give interest to 
the scenery from which he drew his illustration. 

While this parable is identical with that of the Tares 
in the field in two points — namely, the permitted ming- 
ling of good and evil within the outward Church on 
earth, and the final and complete separation of these in 
the day of the Lord (at "the end of the world," as it is 
called in both) — the aspect under which these are pre- 
sented to us is different. 

It ; - oof a field now in which ^cc<] is sown, but the 
aea into which a net Is cast. From this we gather an 
important distinction between the general bearing of the 
two parables, while each closes with the separation of 



136 THE PARABLES OF JESUS. 

the good from the evil. The parable of the Tares inti- 
mates to us that the ungodliness of mere profession will 
be seen to be mingled more or less with the reality of 
true godliness during the world's existence. The par- 
able before us indicates another view of the matter. 
The net is cast in, and as " it gathers of every kind" its 
operation is out of sight. The end will show what it is 
gathering, but as it is dragged along it is under the 
water, and so out of view. 

The same Being, likewise, who is mentioned in the 
former is implied in this. " The Son of man," who is 
represented as if "sowing good seed in a field," must 
be regarded here as if " casting a net into the sea." 
But the imagery of the two parables suggests a widely 
different application. In the parable of the Tares in 
the field we see the representation of the vital power of 
the word in "the children of the kingdom." They 
are the " good seed," because with prepared hearts they 
have received the word and keep it. In the parable 
now before us we behold the judicial power of the 
word in retaining its hold on every one with whom 
it is brought into contact unto the judgment of the 
great day. 

The sort of net to which our Lord likens the king- 
dom of heaven is not difficult to determine. In the 
heading of the chapter in our Bibles it is called a draw- 
wet, and the particular kind is distinctly specified by 
the word in the original. It is a net of the largest size 
— what is called by us a seine — suffering nothing to 
escape from it; and this, its all-embracing nature, is 
certainly not to be left out of sight as an accidental 
or unimportant circumstance, but contains, in fact, a 
prophecy of the wide reach and potent operation of the 



THE HE A W-NET. 137 

gospel, as designed not, like the old dispensation, only 
for one people, but for the race of mankind in its uni- 
versality. 

What more truthful image than the sea could have 
been employed to represent our world with its restless- 
ness, its storms, its perils, its various population, from 
the self-righteous moralist to the vilest profligate or 
daring blasphemer; and all these, too, feeling them- 
selves at home in it as the element in which they natu- 
rally delight to live ! Such is the state of all men by 
nature, and the gospel is the only means of extricating 
them from their guilt and danger. And to this end it 
is divinely adapted. It is the grand catholicon for 
humanity. It comes down to men's circumstances of 
moral wretchedness. It recognizes them as fallen and 
perishing, and it contemplates their deliverance. It 
announces their ruin, and proclaims their help. It 
asserts their disease, and offers the healing balm. It is 
suited to the circumstances of all sinners. Like the net, 
which, corked above and leaded below, stood erect as a 
wall in the water, enclosing a large space, so the gospel 
makes its proclamations of mercy to all men. It em- 
braces the wide world. It is addressed to every crea- 
ture. It speaks to man as man, and reveals a Saviour 
to every perishing sinner. As God's expedient for 
rescuing sinners from perdition it is replete with his 
unerring wisdom. It is the power of God to salvation 
to every one that believeth. 

Though what Las just been affirmed of the gospel is 
true, only in connection with active instrumentality can 
it be expected to accomplish its destined end. The net 
must be " casl into the sea." It is not enough that the 
word of salvation exist, and thai it be suitable for its 
12 ' 



138 THE PARABLES OF JESUS. 

purpose; it must be preached. This is God's appointed 
method of saving men, and for the execution of it he 
raises up those whom he calls and commissions to pro- 
claim the counsels of his grace. And this is an arduous, 
laborious work. Few occupations involve more toil, 
fatigue and self-denial than that of the fisherman. 
Such also is the laborious calling of the Christian min- 
ister. He must be wholly given to it in heart and holy 
desire for the good of souls— instant in season and out 
of season. He must sacrifice the love of ease and the 
honors and rewards of the world, and bear the cross 
of his divine Master. 

It may be well here to notice that the word "fishers" 
is the oldest name by which the ministerial office is 
described in the Xew Testament. It lies deeper down 
than the name of bishop, elder or deacon, and " in it," 
says an old commentator, "is the work of ministers 
set out— to gain souls to God. They are not to fish 
merely for a livelihood, much less for honor and ap- 
plause to themselves, but to win souls to. God, and are 
to bait their hooks and order their nets to this end ; 
which they never will serve if either by general dis- 
courses they make the meshes so wide that all will dart 
through them, or by their wit and learning they make 
their discourses so fine and curious that few or none of 
their hearers can understand them. 'Follow me,' said 
Jesus, 'and I will make you fishers of men.' Here 
we see our Lord's authority : / will make you. Paul 
may plant and Apollos may water, but God must give 
the increase. But yet we must order our nets rationally 
and probably in order to our end, and without that we 
cannot expect God's blessing." 

The fish moves about at liberty in the deep, broad 



THE DRAW-NET. 139 

sea. It does not think that the mysterious lines which 
it sees silently, slowly creeping near and winding 
round it constitute a net. It imagines they are some 
loose things, certain species of seaweed, such as it has 
often seen before. It has gone round them often and 
easily, and it will do so again. But they approach 
persistently, and always from the same side, the side 
lying between it and the open sea, so that to avoid 
them the fish must move toward the shore. Getting 
a nearer view, it descries some new features of dan- 
ger. These lines are crossed and knotted in a manner 
all unlike the seaweed threads that streamed so long 
and straight and loose in the tideway. A secret fore- 
boding of some unknown doom arises ; the alarmed 
captive, having now no farther room to retire, darts 
wildly seaward, and is caught in the inevitable meshes 
of the encircling net. After a moment of violent but 
feeble struggle it is laid still and dumb on the shore. 
Here is a picture touchingly, terribly exact of our 
own state. To whomsoever the gospel comes, it never 
leaves him. From that moment he never can shake 
himself loose from its power. It takes fast hold of 
him, and he never can escape from it. He may appear 
in outward things just as he appeared before. Men 
may mark no difference in him. They may be as little 
aware of a change of condition in him as a man stand- 
ing on the shore is ignorant of what may be enclosed 
in a net which is being drawn, but in reality he has be- 
come enclosed within the meshes of a net which is drag- 
ging him irresistibly along. Whether for good or evil, 
whether for acquittal or condemnation, he cannot arrest 
for ;ui instant his progress toward the judgment-seat, 
t<> which he is being carried from the first moment 



140 THE PARABLES OF JESUS. 

when the offer of salvation in the gospel was made 
to him. 

But, though the net cannot be evaded, it may be 
changed. And so it is to all believers. Death, in 
approaching those who have become new creatures in 
Christ, becomes a new creature too, as the image in a 
mirror changes with the object that stands before it. 
This dreaded net becomes like a warm, soft encircling 
arm pressing a frightened infant closer to a mother's 
breast. 

The phrase "every Mud" means both good and bad. 
As the servants who were sent to invite guests to the 
marriage-supper " gathered together all, as many as they 
found, both bad and good," so here the net takes fishes 
of all sorts within its folds. Men of every diversity of 
moral character, persons of every rank, class, nation and 
color — and these, one and all, without exception or dis- 
tinction, are sinners — have the gospel preached to them, 
and thus are embraced in its comprehension. 

How great a difference there may be even among the 
members of one congregation ! They sit side by side, 
they unite in the same prayers, they hear the same 
preaching, yet how unlike may they be in the sight of 
God ! He sees the hearts of all, and it is by the heart 
that he judges. Man may separate between the grossly 
wicked and the pious — between the thief, the swearer, the 
drunkard, the Sabbath-breaker, on the one hand, and the 
> man of consistent godly life on the other. But God sees 
farther than man, and much that is respectable in the 
eyes of men is not approved by him. Only he who is 
of a penitent and contrite heart, and rests his hope 
on his Saviour, and seeks to serve and glorify him, is 
accepted and approved by God. 



THE DRAW-NET. 141 

But, though we see here a mixture of good and bad — 
a Ham in the ark, a Judas among the apostles — this 
mixture is only for a time. 

In the verse, " which, when it was full, they drew to 
shore, and sat down, and gathered the good into vessels, but 
cast the bad away" we have, as has well been said, the 
central figure of the parable. A group of fishermen, 
panting from recent exertion, are sitting on a knoll close 
by the seaside, with the newly-drawn net lying in a soak- 
ing heap at their feet, j)icking up one by one the fishes 
that are fit for food and putting them on one side into 
baskets, and casting the rest away. The men are skill- 
ful, experienced and cool ; they have no interest in form- 
ing an erroneous judgment, and they are not liable to fall 
into mistakes. The separation between good and bad is 
deliberate, accurate, inevitable. At the close not one good 
fish has been cast away, and not a bad one has been ad- 
mitted into the vessels. 

Our Lord offers no explanation of the "vessels" 
into which the good fish, or faithful Christians, are 
gathered ; nor, indeed, is any needed: what the "barn" 
was in the parable of the Tares the vessels are here. 
They are the " many mansions " which the Lord Jesus 
went to prepare for his people, the "everlasting hab- 
itations" into which he promises to receive them, the 
"city which hath foundations" that Abraham looked 
for. 

" But east the bad away" An entire freedom from all 
evil belongs to the idea of the Church, and tin's idea shall 
ultimately be realized. Notwithstanding all that mars its 
purity and defiles its brightness, whatever we see cleaving 
to it we know to be an alien, disturbing element which is 
one day to be separated from it. Then (lie sound and 



142 THE PARABLES OF JESUS. 

faithful professors of Christ's religion shall be delivered 
from the presence of the evil disciples by whom their 
righteous souls have been vexed; then, separated from 
all evil in themselves and around themselves, they shall 
be, in their finite capacity, holy as God is holy; and then 
the wicked, severed from the good, shall be consigned to 
their merited doom. They shall be "cast away," or 
"cast out" — that is, condemned. In the book of Rev- 
elation we read that " without " — that is, outside the 
walls of the heavenly city—" are dogs/' i. e. unclean 
persons, sinners ; and the expression " cast out from the 
presence of God " imports an amount of suffering, sor- 
row and ruin which nothing else can adequately em- 
body. 

The separation just described shall, as the Saviour 
tells us, take place at "the end of the world." The 
end of the world ! The infidel and scoffer may smile 
and sneer at the affirmation of such an event, and yet it 
is one which will as certainly come to pass as God is 
seated upon his throne, for the decree is gone forth and 
cannot be reversed ; the day is fixed and cannot be al- 
tered. All that pertains to this present world— all its 
great and magnificent works, all the improvements of 
ages, all the labors of philosophers, artists, statesmen and 
agriculturists, all its libraries, castles, palaces, all its proud 
monuments and towering structures — shall be demolish- 
ed ; all its existing distinctions shall terminate ; and all 
the means of grace which are now available in it will 
for ever be withdrawn : the Sabbath will no more shine, 
the Bible will no more open, the sermon will no more 
sound upon the dull or eager ear; the throne of grace, 
now so radiant with promise, will be hidden by the fall- 
ing curtain of an expired dispensation of mercy, and 



THE BRA W-NET. 14 ;> > 

the proclamation of pardon through the blood of the 
Lamb will no longer roll its glad accents over a guilty 
race. 

As this parable, one observes, is the last of the seven 
which have respect to the kingdom of heaven, and the 
Lord has in successive delineations represented the ori- 
gin, nature, progress and glory of that kingdom, so it 
appears, as its position might lead us to suppose, that in 
this similitude the subject of discourse mainly respects 
the final completion of the kingdom, which is to be 
ushered in with a general judgment. Hence the gath- 
ering of the Church stands more in the background, and 
the final separation stands forth as the chief and prom- 
inent object. The judgment is the end of the world. 
It is the close of the mixed condition of things where 
good men and bad exist together in a state of trial. On 
the authority of our Redeemer, and in terms so transpa- 
rent that they afford no room for doubt, we here learn 
that on the shore to which we are silently, surely mov- 
ing a separation infallibly exact and irrevocably final 
will be made between the evil and the good. And 
what a separation ! The nadir is not so distant from 
the zenith, the east is not so distant from the west, as 
tin' saved will be severed and separated from the lost. 
The wings of love can cross many a stream, the feet of 
love can wade many a deep, in this dispensation, but 
there a great gulf is fixed, so that he who would come 
here cannot, and he who would go there cannot go 
farther. 

From the words, " The angels shall come forth, and 
sever the wicked from among the just" we learn that the 
gathering into the net which takes place by the agency 
of mm shall continue 



144 THE PARABLES OF JESUS. 

"Till all the ransomed Church of God 
Be saved to sin no more ;" 

but no longer. The last soul Jesus will ever save hav- 
ing been saved, the last pardon he will give having been 
given, the last act of grace being done, the last design 
of God's providence being accomplished, the world's last 
day having come, — then shall the bright angelic spirits 
which ever since the first constitution of the Church — 
with the transactions of which they had much to do — 
have been hidden, withdrawn from men's sight for so 
long, — then, at that great epoch of the kingdom, shall 
these glorious spirits " come forth " from before the 
throne and presence of God, appointed thereto by the 
King of the heavenly kingdom, to " sever the wicked 
from among the just." 

God has assigned the angels the work of making the 
last discrimination. And this appointment defines, in 
one important respect, the duty of ministers of the gos- 
pel. It is not for them to pronounce the destinies and 
doom of those who are living under the influence of the 
gospel. It is not for them to bring men before the 
throne of judgment, but to press them to come to the 
throne of grace. It is not for them to discriminate in 
the pulpit between persons, but to discriminate surely, 
clearly and distinctly between characters and principles. 
It is not for them to mount the tribunal of trial, but to 
spread the net. It is not for them to pronounce the 
doom, but to proclaim salvation — to beckon all sorts to 
the cross, to tell them that now is the accepted time, 
that none need be lost but those that will, and all may 
be saved who seek salvation, " without money and with- 
out price." 

Most fearful are the words which indicate the course 



THE DRAW-NET. 145 

of justice upon the wicked: " And shall oast them into the 
furnace of fire; there shall be wailing and gnashing of 
teeth." " It cannot escape the notice of the Bible-reader," 
says an able writer, " how frequently the element of fire 
is made to act a part in the punishment of the ungodly. 
Whether those numerous passages in which this idea is 
brought out are to be taken literally, so that we are to 
learn thereby that the wicked, after the resurrection, 
shall indeed dwell with everlasting burnings, that the 
living, quenchless flames of material fire shall ever wrap 
themselves about their guilty yet unconsumable bodies, 
causing them to gnash their teeth for pain and wail for 
anguish, is not for us to assert or deny. One thing is 
certain : that by the use of such language God designs 
that we should gather the most painful and horrific 
idea of woe which it is possible for the human mind to 
conceive, that we should understand by this means the 
intensity and unbearableness of the doom which will be 
visited upon the ungodly, and that this punishment shall 
never end, for all who love not the Lord Jesus Christ 
shall be cast into hell, ' where their worm dieth not, and 
their fire is not quenched.' " 

Plow tremendous the thought of the final separation ! 
In this world, as neighbors, friends, parents and chil- 
dren, husbands and wives, brothers and sisters, we dwell 
together in intimate and endearing fellowship, but the 
day is coming when we shall be rent asunder. All, all 
will then be divided into two companies, and only two 
— one never to mingle with, never to see, the other! 



"Great day of dread, decision and despair! 
At thought of thee each sublunary wish 
Lets go its eager grasp and quits the world. 

I.; 



146 THE PARABLES OF JESUS. 

Let it be a settled principle with us never to be satis- 
fied with mere outward church membership. "We may- 
be inside the net, and yet not be in Christ. The waters 
of baptism are poured on myriads who are never washed 
in the water of life. The bread and wine are eaten and 
drunk by thousands at the Lord's Table who never feed 
on Christ by faith. Are we converted ? Are we among 
the " good fish " ? This is the grand question : it is one 
which must be answered at last. The net will soon be 
"drawn to the shore." The true character of every 
man's religion will be exposed. Let there be no self- 
deception, no stifling of conscience, no vain and un- 
scriptural hope that things may not, after all, be as 
they are represented. They will be. Nothing can 
alter the word of God. Duty and interest combine to 
induce us to adopt the prayer and purpose which the 
Christian poet so tenderly expresses: 



: Christ's blood and 
Shall be the marriage-dress 
In which I'll stand 
At God's right hand, 

Forgiven, 
And enter rest 
Among the blest 

In heaven. 

' Help, Lord, that we may come 
To thy saints' happy home, 
Where a thousand years 
As one day appears, 

Nor go 
Where one day appears 
As a thousand years, 
For woe." 



*THE * MERglLESS *M¥AM".* 



"In the course of justice, none of us 
Should see salvation : we do pray for mercy, 
And that same prayer doth teach us all to render 

The deeds of mercy." 

147 



23 Therefore is the kingdom of heaven likened unto a certain king, 

j 7 which would take account of his servants. And -when he had begun 
to reckon, one was brought unto him, which 07ued him ten thousand 

23 talents. But forasmuch as he had not to pay, his lord commanded 
him to be sold, and his wife, and children, and all that he had, and 

26 payment to be made. The servant therefore fell down, and wor- 
shiped him, saying. Lord, have patience with me, and I will pay 

2J thee all. Then the lord of that servant was moved with compassion, 

28 and loosed him, and forgave him the debt. But the same servant 
went out, and found one of his felloiu-servants, which owed him a 
hundred pence : and he laid hands on him, and took him by the 

2Q throat, saying, Pay me that thou owest. And his fellow-servant 
fell down at his feet, and besought him, saying, Have patience with 

30 me, and 1 will pay thee all. And he would not : but went and 

31 cast him into prison, till he should pay the debt. So when his fel- 
low-servants saw what 'was done, they were very sorry, and came 

32 and told unto their lord all that was done. Then his lord, after 
that he had called him, said unto him, O thou wicked servant, I 

33 forgave thee all that debt, because thou desiredst me : Shouldest not 
thou also have had compassion on thy fellow -servant, even as J had 

34 pity on thee ? And his lord was wroth, and delivered him to the 
33 tormentors, till he should pay all that was due unto him. So like- 
wise shall my heavenly Father do also unto you, if ye from your 
hearts forgive not every one his brother their trespasses. 

Matt, xviii. 23-35. 
148 



THE MERCILESS SERVANT. 



" A ^'IIDST so much excellence as we meet with in 
-*—**- the gospel," says Bishop Porte us, " it is not easy 
to say what is most excellent ; but if I were to select 
any one parable of our Lord's as more interesting, more 
affecting, coming more home to the feelings, and press- 
ing closer on the hearts of men than any other of the 
rest, I think it would be this. Certain it is that in all 
the characters of excellence, in perspicuity, in brevity, 
in simplicity, in pathos, in force, it has no equal in any 
human composition whatever." The question of Peter 
to our Lord, " How oft shall my brother sin against 
me, and I forgive him?" (Matt, xviii. 21), originated 
this parable. The apostle by his question proved that 
he needed instruction in the great duty of forgiveness, 
and our Lord deals with him accordingly. It seems to 
have been a question among Jewish teachers so early 
as the time of Christ how often one should forgive his 
neighbor, which at a later period was thus resolved in 
the Talmud : " If a man commits an offence, he is to 
be forgiven for the first time; the second and third 
time lie is also to be forgiveD ; but if he sins a fourth 
time he is not to be forgiven, according to- Amos i. 3; 
ii. 6 ; Job xxxiii. 29, 30." Peter asked Jesus how 
often he was to forgive his brother, and, feeling that 

13* I It) 



150 Til K PARABLES OF JESUS. 

the gospel was a dispensation of larger grace than the 
law, he suggested seven times, supposing that thus lie 
did something which was extraordinary, and which 
sufficiently answered all just demands. Our blessed 
Lord instantly replied to him in a way which extin- 
guishes all arithmetic, all mechanics, all morality by 
measure or by weight, and establishes the great prin- 
ciple of action— namely, love. In accordance with his 
language elsewhere, he wished to impress on the mind 
of his disciple that as often as an offending brother asked 
forgiveness, so often there should be a ready and frank 
exercise of this spirit. Then, in the parable, he taught 
him more than this. 

Peter was obviously too much taken up with the mere 
number of times in which it was expected that he should 
forgive his offending brother. In addition to the bare 
duty of forgiveness, Jesus urges what appears to be the 
main scope and bearing of the parable — the duty of 
"forgiving from the heart." 

It has been suggested— and, as we think, justly — 
that this parable and that of the Good Samaritan, 
although historically separate, are logically related, like 
two branches that spring from one stem : together they 
express a Christian's duty to his brother in respect of 
injuries. Forgiving love is taught in the one; helpful 
love in the other. 

Therefore — i. e. in view of the duty of unlimited for- 
giveness. The " kingdom of heaven " here refers to 
God's dealings with men under the gospel dispensation. 
In forgiving men their sins, and requiring also in them 
a like merciful and forgiving spirit, God deals witli them 
as a certain king did with his servants. The divine is 
in this respect analogous to the human. 



THE MERCILESS SERVANT. 151 

There is nothing to forbid our belief that such an 
occurrence as is described in this parable actually took 
place ; but were it not a reality, there is no violation of 
truth, as illustrations from supposed events are of com- 
mon use and well understood as such. 

This is the first of the parables in which God appears 
in his character of King. The servants spoken of in it 
were not slaves, the property of their master, for after- 
ward it is assumed that he may sell them, not as an 
ordinary right, but as the special penalty incurred by 
an insolvent debtor. In Oriental language all the sub- 
jects of the king, even the ministers of state, are called 
servants. 

The " reckoning " which the king here demands is 
grounded on a relation of dependence, and so our rela- 
tion to God is that of servants to a lord, to whom we 
are responsible for everything he has given us — for 
life, time, powers of body and of soul, opportunities of 
action and the word of his grace. This reckoning must 
not be regarded as representing the final reckoning by 
our heavenly King with his servants. It is perfectly 
distinct from such a taking account of his servants as 
is set forth in the parables of the Talents or the Pounds, 
in that of the Ten Virgins, the Sheep and the Goats 
and the Marriage-Supper. The reckoning here must 
have reference to something before the day of proba- 
tion closes, not when that is past for ever. "To this 
the King brings us by the setting of our sins before 
our lace, by awakening and alarming our conscience that 
was asleep before. He takes account with us when he 
makes US feel that we could not answer him one thing 
La a thousand. Thus David was summoned before God 
by the word of Nathan the prophel ; thus the NTinevites 



152 THE PARABLES OF JESUS. 

by the preaching of Jonah ; tints the Jews by John the 
Baptist/' 

When the king had " begun to reckon " he had not 
to go far before he lighted on one who owed him ten 
thousand talents.* He did not select the greatest 
debtor, but the very first that came to his hand, and 
him he found to be a great defaulter. 

How true it is that each of us owes God a vast debt ! 
Every sin we have ever been guilty of has added to the 
account against us, and when we look back through the 
course of years to youth and childhood, and consider 
what we have left undone, as well as what we have 
done amiss by thought, word and deed — duties omitted, 
opportunities lost, mercies and chastisements unimprov- 
ed, to say nothing of more direct guilt on the one hand, 
nor yet of such sins as we cannot remember on the other 
— which of us must not own that he indeed owes a debt 
which he can never repay ? 

It will be observed that this servant did not come to 
the king of his own accord, but was " brought unto 
him." The last thing that a debtor that cannot pay 
will do is to face his creditor. What a remarkable 
fact is this ! There is, says one, something in sin that 
makes it skulk and shrink into a nook and court dark- 
ness. A man that cannot bear to look you in the face 
has something within that does not sit comfortably there. 
" He that doeth truth cometh to the light, that his deeds 
may be made manifest that they are wrought' in God." 
Thus this conscious debtor would not have come to his 
creditor of his own free will, because sin dislikes that 
which reminds it of its turpitude. And if tins was 

* A vast sum, as a talent equaled twelve hundred and sixteen 
d< .liars. 



THE MERCILESS SERVANT. 153 

true of this debtor in reference to his creditor, it is no 
less so of us debtors in reference to our great creditor, 
God. 

What is the character of sin ? * It keeps the sinner 
at a distance from God. This is the very first and the 
most permanent eifect that is produced by sin, so that 
instead of going with our sin to God's mercy to have it 
all expunged, we keep at a distance from God. And 
what is the effect of our keeping at a distance from 
him ? That we are treasuring up additional debt and 
wrath against the day of wrath. Therefore, it is never 
until we see God, not in the light of a creditor (that is, 
the natural man's light), but in the light of a Father, 
that we go to him and say, " Forgive us." Who is it 
that can pray, " Forgive us our debts as we forgive 
our debtors " ? The people who can say, "Our Father 
which art in heaven." No man ever prayed aright till 
he prayed as a child before a father ; and no man ever 
confessed his sins aright until he confessed those sins, 
not as a criminal thrust into the presence of a judge, 
but as a child seeking shelter in the bosom of a father. 

As this servant " had nothing to pay," so is it with the 
sinner. It is not that he is merely short of the whole 
sum by which he might clear his account with God, but 
he has absolutely nothing which can in the least pass 
current in such a settlement as God requires in the 
affaire of his soul. And thus, by his spiritual bank- 
ruptcy, he has fallen into the hands of the living God 
and exposed himself to the whole penalty due to his 
misdeeds. The command of the lord that the default- 
ing debtor and his wife and children, and all that he had, 
should be sold, is very severe, but was in accordance with 
law and cjustom. No complaint, indeed, is made by the 



154 THE PARABLES OF JESUS. 

servant against the sentence as if it were unjust in prin- 
ciple or excessive in degree.* " This," says Luther, 
" is the judgment which follows as soon as the law 
manifests sin; for God has not given his law that he 
might leave those unpunished who do not keep it. It 
is not pleasant or friendly, but. brings along with it a 
violent and painful struggle, and gives us to the devil, 
throws us into hell, and leaves us in the hands of pun- 
ishment — consccpiently insists upon our paying the very 
last farthing." God manifests himself in his law 
through demands and threatenings pre-eminently as a 
holy and righteous God. 

When the bankrupt servant's wife and children and all 
were ordered to be sold, there was one resource left, and 
to this he betook himself. He fell down, according to 
the Oriental method of doing homage, and " worshiped " 
his lord. The word "worship" here does not mean 
divine adoration; it is often used to signify civil 
homage. In one passage in the Old Testament, indeed, 
it is used to denote both : " They worshiped both the 
Lord and the king," meaning that they worshiped the 
Lord as God, and gave to the king that civil homage 
which belonged to him. This man therefore fell down, 
giving all the homage to the ruler that that ruler 
properly required, and said, " Have patience with me, and 
I will pay thee alV These words are characteristic of 
the extreme fear and anguish of the moment, which 
made him ready to promise impossible things, even 

* It is scarcely necessary to say that no inference can be drawn 
from this sentence that God intends wives to suffer for the delinquen- 
cies of their husbands or children for those of their parents. Such 
an inference is utterly contrary to the analogy of faith. This punish* 
meat must be considered as inflicted upon the debtor alone. 



THE MERCILESS SERVANT. 155 

mountains of gold, if only he might be delivered from 
the present danger. 

When words of a like kind find utterance from the 
lips of the sinner, now first convinced of his sin, they 
show that he has not yet attained to a full insight of his 
relations with his God — that he has yet to learn that no 
future obedience can make up for past disobedience, since 
that future God claims as only his due. It could not, 
then, even were it perfect — which it will prove far from 
being — make compensation for the past. We hear in 
these words the voice of self-righteousness, imagining 
that if only time were allowed it could make good all 
the shortcomings of the past. "Moved with compassion" 
for the hopeless misery of his debtor, the king listened 
to his prayer, and, knowing that, try as he might, he 
could never pay such a sum as was due, forgave him 
all. Thus does God forgive sinners. This is the true 
aspect wherein most characteristically to represent him 
and our own heart. To make any other representation 
of him would depict him in an unjust light and other- 
wise than he is in himself. He is a gracious God and 
has a fatherly heart. Jesus Christ, his dear Son, has 
made a full atonement for sin by his blood, and in 
the gospel forgiveness is offered to all — free, full, pres- 
ent and eternal forgiveness. The conduct of the lord at 
the first, therefore, as rigidly and strictly adhering to 
the law, should serve merely to manifest to the heart 
its guilt, to break and humble it, that to the contrite, 
penitent ami believing there may be granted forgiveness. 
Lei ii be noted that the king does more than the servant 
asks. At the first he brings up the deserved judgment 
or suffering, then he discharges the debt itself, declares 
him free. lie had sought one benefit ; he obtained two. 



156 THE PARABLES OF JESUS. 

Our sins arc many and great, but grace superabounds. 
These sins, though so many and so great, God constantly 
wishes to remit. Let faith here be put in exercise, that 
we may indeed believe this. And in this faith let us 
approach God, adoring him 'with fervent supplication 
and giving thanks to his name. 

Here we are met by the inquiry, " Who is meant by 
this servant ? Is he meant to represent a true child of 
God or not?" The answer to this question manifestly 
involves issues of the greatest magnitude. If we adopt 
the first of these views, we are driven to the conclusion 
that one who has been brought from darkness to light 
may again be banished to outer darkness and separated 
from Christ for ever. If we adopt the last, then the 
difficulty occurs, " How is it, then, that he is said to be 
foro iven ?" The true solution of this difficulty we take 
to be this: It was common with our Lord in his parables 
to address men upon their own principles — not according 
to what they were in fact, but what they were in pro- 
fession and expectation. For example, "There is joy 
over one sinner that repenteth, more than over ninety- 
and-nine just persons which need no repentance;" "The 
whole need not a physician, but they that are sick f " I 
came not to call the righteous, but sinners to repent- 
ance." Not that there were any among mankind who 
were righteous, whole and needed no repentance, in fact, 
but merely in their own account. The elder son in the 
parable in Luke xv. is doubtless intended to represent 
the scribes and Pharisees, who at that time drew near 
and murmured at Christ's receiving sinners. And yet 
this elder son is allowed to be obedient (at least, he is 
not contradicted in this matter) and to have a large in- 
terest in his father's inheritance; not because it was so 



THE MERCILESS SERVANT. 157 

in J act, but as reasoning with them on their own prin- 
ciples. Still nearer to the case in hand is the parable 
addressed to Simon the Pharisee. Our Lord here sup- 
poses that Simon was a little sinner and a forgiven sinner, 
and yet, in fact, he was neither. No set of men were 
greater sinners in reality than the Pharisees, and this 
man gave proof of Ids being in an impenitent and un- 
forgiven state. But Christ reasoned with him upon his 
own principles : " You reckon yourself a little sinner, 
and that what few failings you have will doubtless be 
forgiven you. Well, be it so: this woman is a great 
sinner, and so accounts herself. I forgave her all her 
transgressions, and therefore you need not wonder at 
her conduct; her love to me is greater than yours, even 
allowing, for argument's sake, that your love is sincere." 

Tims, in our parable our Lord solemnly warned all 
who professed to be the people of God, and who had 
their expectations of being forgiven by him, without 
determining whether their professions were sincere or 
th sir expsctations well founded, that if they forgave not 
men their trespasses, neither would their heavenly Father 
forgive them their trespasses. Whether they were sin- 
cere or not made no difference as to the argument. 

The servant whose case we have considered dealt to 
one of his fellow-servants a measure very different from 
that which his master dealt to him. "He went out" 
This is not without meaning. When is it that we fur- 
get our obligation to God and our responsibilities to 
him? When, like Cain, we go out from God's pres- 
ence. Where is the place of safety and of holiness, (lie 

place of strength and joy? The answer is, In the pres- 
ence of God. When we let go our sense of a present 

God we lei go one of the main motives to duty. 



158 77/ A' PARABLES OF JESUS. 

We are told that this "fellow-servant" "owed", the 
of her "a hundred pence" — an amount comparatively 
small, as is fit between servant and servant, but by its 
very smallness bringing the cruelty of the creditor out 
in high relief. In this expression it is implied that We 
may really be so injured by others as to make them our 
debtors, but that such offences as we can receive from 
others, compared with those which we have committed 
against God, are but as a debt of one hundred pence 
com pared to one of ten thousand talents. The reality 
of injury is not denied, but its comparative insignif- 
icance is strongly intimated. 

This servant's behavior to his fellow - servant is a 
perfect contrast of that of the king to him. He forgets 
that he has been himself just forgiven an infinitely 
larger sum than what his fellow-servant owed him, and 
that his creditor, who had been thus moved with com- 
passion toward him, was a mighty king, whereas his 
own debtor was a fellow-servant, to whom, from that 
common tie, he was especially bound. He thinks 
nothing of all this, but treats his petitioner with the 
severity which, in his own case, he had so lately depre- 
cated. "He laid hands on him, and took him by the 
throat;" which sets before us his passionate violence 
and heartlessness. The vehemence of his demand be- 
trays a mind dead to all delicate feelings ; he enforces 
his threatenings through unheard-of cruelties.* How 
are we filled with indignation against this servant ! 

* Men are apt to demand their debts, especially from their eqir.ils 
or inferiors, with a haughtiness and roughness hard to be borne, and 
yet the poor debtor is forced by necessity to take it patiently and to 
be all submission. When a debtor is chargeable with no fault or 
fraud, but is disabled by mere poverty to satisfy his debts, to use the 
extremity of the law against such a man is cruel and inhuman. 



THE MERCILESS SERVANT. 159 

Had he no gratitude ? uo sense of his own escape ? no 
feeling of the unbounded kindness he had received? 
With the words of forgiveness still sounding in his 
ears, how could he go forth from the very scene of his 
deliverance and show himself so hard aud unforgiving ? 
How was it that even the words of his fellow-servant, 
" Have patience with me, and I will pay thee all," did 
not recall the very same words so lately spoken by him 
out of the depth of his distress, and so compassionately 
heard ? The feeling is a right feeling ; it is no more 
than a just indignation that is stirred within us ; and it 
prepares us to find the sequel of the narrative what it is. 

" When his fellow-servants saw what was done, they 
were sorry." They were sorry — their lord was wroth. 
" The distinction/' says an eminent expositor, " is not 
accidental, nor without its grounds. In man the sense 
of his own guilt, the deep consciousness that whatever 
sin he sees come to ripeness in another exists in germ 
and seed in his own heart ; the feeling that all flesh is 
one, and that the sin of one calls for humiliation from 
all, — will ever cause sorrow to be the predominant feel- 
ing in his heart when the spectacle of moral evil is 
brought before his eyes; but in God the pure hatred 
of sin — which is, indeed, his love of holiness at its 
negative side — finds place." 

"And came and told unto their lord all that was done," 
even as the righteous complain to God and mourn in 
their prayer over the oppressions that are wrought in 
their sight. The things which they cannot set right 
themselves, the wrongs which they are not strong 
enough to redress themselves, liny can at least bring 
unto him, and lie hears their cry. The unmerciful 
forfeits the reaped and love <•(' his fellow-men. " We 



II if) THE PARABLES OF JESUS. 

must know," says Calvin, "that there will be so many; 
witnesses against us before God as there are men now 
living with us; for it cannot be but that cruelty shall 
be displeasing and odious to them, especially when 
every one fears for himself lest the severity he sees 
exercised upon another may alight upon his own 
head." 

What can be more stern and awful than the words of 
the king to the unforgiving servant ? " Then his lord, 
after that he had called him." This shall be done at 
the last day. The phrase, "Thou wicked servant," is 
most severe, yet it is richly deserved, for no man is 
so wicked as he that sins against light, excepting the 
man that sins against mercy. " / forgave thee all 
(hat debt," as soon as, and because, thou " desiredst 
me," out of free grace, without any desert and worthi- 
ness. The unmerciful supplies God with weapons 
against himself. " Shouldest not thou also have had 
compassion on thy fellow-servant, even as I had pity on 
thee f" The argument a fortiori is here employed : 
If I forgave you that great debt, much more should 
you have forgiven your fellow-servant the trifle he 
owed you. God first exercises compassion, and after- 
ward desires and expects it of us. No answer of the 
merciless servant is recorded. "And his lord WW 
wroth "_angry. Before this he was not angry, but 
now he is. Here is a representation of God's holy 
and punitive justice. "And delivered him to the tor- 
mentors." The pardon is revoked. The king would 
forgive a debt of ten thousand talents, but he would 
not forgive that hard-hearted ingratitude. There are 
tormentors in the world of wot — fellow-sinner- and 
evil angels, instruments of the just yet terrible judg- 



THE MERCILESS SERVANT. 161 

raents of God. " Till he should pay all that was due 
unto him" — until with nothing he could pay an im- 
mense debt ; that is, for evermore. His condition was 
remediless. " Till " does not indicate the time when 
punishment will cease, but the time up to which it 
will continue. Since man can never pay the slightest 
portion of the debt he owes to God, the making the 
payment of all the condition of his deliverance from 
punishment is the strongest possible way of expressing 
the eternal duration of his punishment. 

" The day 
"Will come, when Virtue from the cloud shall burst 
That long obscured her beams — when Sin shall fly 
Back to her native hell, there sink eclipsed 
In penal darkness, where nor star shall rise, 
Nor ever sunshine pierce the impervious gloom." 

The practical lesson of the parable is thus stated : 
" So likewise shall my heavenly Father do also unto 
you, if ye from your hearts forgive not every one his 
brother their trespasses." What is meant by forgiving 
a brother? In settling this question, as in the deter- 
mination of other Christian duties, there must be care- 
ful discrimination. There should not, of course, be a 
little, narrow, grudging forgiveness; it should be large, 
loving and free. It should not be formal merely, but 
real — not outward only, but " from the heart." 

But parallel with forgiveness there must be faithful- 
ness. For example, there is no virtue in simply permit- 
ting a man to wrong us as often as he chooses — forgiving 
liim and doing nothing more. In the immediately pre- 
ceding contexl the Lord lias taught that the injured 

si lil tell the injurer his fault. Tell him faithfully 

in 8ecre1 hi- sin. II' he repent, thou hast gained thy 



162 THE PARABLES OF JESUS. 

brother. If he do not listen, tell it in the presence of 
two or three witnesses. If he is still obdurate, tell it to 
the Church ; and if lie refuse to hear the Church, with- 
draw from his company. Let him and all the world 
know thai yon do not make light of his sin. So, like- 
wise, in the parallel passage in Luke xvii. 4 — "If thy 
brother trespass against thee seven times in a day, and 
seven times in a day turn again to thee, saying, I repent, 
thou shalt forgive him "—forgiving an offender is made 
to turn upon the condition that he is sincerely penitent 
and entreats forgiveness. Again, in some kinds of in- 
jury it becomes our duty, for the sake of the commu- 
nity, to aid in bringing the criminal to justice. To 
bring the discipline of the righteous law upon the 
criminal is not revenge ; to shield him from its stroke 
is not love. So far from being necessarily inconsistent 
with forgiveness, such faithfulness in action may be 
associated with a Christ-like love to the sinner and a 
thorough forgiveness of his sin so far as it is an injury 
inflicted on us. 

But whilst such considerations and conditions come in 
to modify forgiveness, be it remembered that they mod- 
ify not its nature, only its outward form. Nothing is 
plainer than that God absolutely requires us to forgive 
one another. By his infinite mercy, his boundless com- 
passion, his free forgiveness, he lays upon us this obliga- 
tion. This parable is, indeed, a practical comment on 
that petition in the Lord's Prayer, "Forgive us our 
debts as we forgive our debtors." We learn what infin- 
ite stress our Divine Master lays on this duty of for- 
giveness by the care he takes to enforce it in so many 
different ways— by this parable, by making it a part of 
oiir dailv prayers, and by his repeated declarations that 



TEE MERCILESS SEE VAST. 163 

we must expect no mercy from our Master " unless we 
from our hearts forgive every one his brother their tres- 
passes." To the same purpose are those irresistible words 
of the apostles Paul and John : " Be ye therefore kind 
one to another, tender-hearted, forgiving one another, 
even as God for Christ's sake hath forgiven you j" " We 
know that we have passed from death unto life, because 
we love the brethren. He that loveth not his brother 
abideth in death." Let the hard-hearted, unrelenting 
man of the world or the obdurate, unforgiving parent 
advert to these repeated admonitions, and then let him, 
if he can, indignantly spurn from him the repenting 
offender entreating pardon at his feet. 

It is therefore a question affecting our own state 
before God whether we are of a forgiving spirit or 
not. If we are unwilling to forgive those who have 
injured us, are we ourselves forgiven? If we can go 
forth into the world from hearing the gospel message, 
and, finding there one who has done us wrong, can act 
or speak or think toward him in an unkind or unmer- 
ciful way, is it not sadly plain that the message of the 
gospel has not reached our hearts, and that God's mercy 
in Christ Jesus has not really been laid hold of by us? 

Alas ! how frequently the offence is committed which 
this parable condemns ! In fact, do we not every day 
see men resenting not only real injuries, but slight and 
cvci) Imaginary offences, with vehemence and passion? 
Do we not even see congregations and families rent 
asunder and domestic tranquillity destroyed by the 
in.. -i trivial muses, sometimes on one side, and some- 
times on both, refusing to listen to any reasonable over- 
fcures of peace, haughtily rejecting all offers of recon- 
ciliation, insisting on the highest possible satisfaction 



164 THE PARABLES OF JESUS. 

and submission, and carrying these sentiments of implac- 
able rancor with them to the grave? And yet these 
people call themselves Christians, and expect to be 
themselves forgiven at the throne of mercy ! Let 
every man of this description remember and most seri- 
ously ponder the truth — 

" A wrong avenged is doubly perpetrated : 
Two sinners stand where lately stood but one." 



-**THE VINEYARD-LABORERS.- 



1 Fellow-workers are -we: hour by hour, 

Human tools are shaping Heaven's great schemes, 
Till we see no limit to man's power, 

And reality outstrips old. dreams. 
Toil and struggle, therefore, work and weep ; 
In God's acre ye shall calmly sleep 

When the night eometh." 

165 



/ For the kingdom of heaven is like unlo a man that is an house- 
holder, which went on/ early in the morning to hire laborers into his 
2 vineyard. And when he had agreed with the laborers for a penny a 
j day, he sent them into his vineyard. And he went out about the third 
4 hour, and saw others standing idle in the market-place, And said 
unto them, Co ye also into the vineyard ; and whatsoever is right,/ 
j will give you. And they went their way. Again he went out about 
6 the sixth and ninth hour, and did likewise. And about the eleventh 
hour he went out, and found others standing idle, and saith unto them, 
•j Why stand ye here all the day idle ? They say unto him, Because no 
man hath hired us. He saith unto them, Go ye also into the vine- 
8 yard; and whatsoever is right, thai shall ye receive. So when even 
was come, the lord of the vineyard saith unto his steward, Call the 
laborers, and give them their hire, beginning from the last unto the 
<) first. And when they came that were hired about the eleventh hour, 
10 they received eve7-y man a penny. But when the first came, they sup- 
posed that they should have received more ; and they likewise received 
ii every man a penny. And when they had received it, they murmured 
12 against the good man of the house, Saying, These last have wrought 
but one hour, and thou hast made them equal unto us, which have 
ij borne the burden and heat of the day. But he answered one of them, 
and said, Friend, I do thee no wrong : didst not thou agree with me 

14 for a penny ? Take that thine is, and go thy -way : I will give unto 

15 this last, even as unto thee. Is it not lawful for me to do what Iivill 
lb with mine own ? is thine eye evil because I am good ? So the last 

shall be first, and the first last : for many be called, but few chosen. 

Matt. xx. 1-16. 
166 



THE VINEYARD-LABORERS. 



r I ^HE division of the chapters of the Bible is sorne- 
-*- times unfortunate. Here it is peculiarly so, caus- 
ing, as it has often done, this parable to be explained 
quite independently of the preceding context, by refer- 
ence to which only can the right exposition be reached. 
Nothing is plainer than that the particle For and the 
repetition in verse sixteenth of the saying in the thirtieth 
verse of the preceding chapter, with So — i. e. in this 
manner — indicate that the parable is joined to the 
words that go before. The circumstances out of which 
it sprung arc these: 

A rich young man, when called upon to sell all that 
he had and give to the poor for the sake of treasure 
in heaven, had gone away sorrowful from Jesus. Our 
Lord's observations on this sad picture of worldliness 
drew forth from Peter, who probably expressed the feel- 
ing which existed in the minds of his fellow-disciples, 
the question, "Behold, we have forsaken all, and fol- 
lowed thee: what shall we have therefore?" This 
question indicated an under-current of feeling within 
Peter's mind which needed warning and reproof. In 
the lir-t place, lie seemed to put himself and his breth- 
ren into a favorable comparison with the young ruler 
win. had jn~t lel'l them. It was as nineh a- to say, 

1 117 



k;s 



THE PARABLES OF JESUS. 



"He has gone because he could not give up what he 
had for thee. But we have forsaken all and followed 
thee. We have done what he would not, and have 
shown love to thee as he has not." It was, in fact, a 
glorifying of himself and what he had done by an im- 
plied condemnation of this young man. But, further, 
the spirit manifested in the question was specially wrong- 
by the very terms of that question itself: "What shall 
we have therefore?" As if by their leaving all and fol- 
lowing Christ they had put the latter under obligation 
to them, instead of receiving unspeakable mercy in 
being allowed to follow him at all! — as if, in fact, it 
was to be expected that by their " bearing the burden 
and heat of the day" they had acquired a special claim 
for some benefit by so doing, and he was anxious to 
know what that would be ! 

First, the Lord answered the question, "What shall 
we hare f As they in deed and in sincerity had for- 
saken all for Christ's sake, and desired to know what 
their reward should be, he does not think it good to with- 
hold the reply, but answers them fully : the reward shall 
be great — a hundred-fold, with everlasting life. But 
having thus answered, his discourse takes another turn, 
as is sufficiently indicated in the words, "But many that 
are first shall be last;" and he will warn them now 
against giving place too much to that spirit out of 
which the question proceeded; for there is therein a 
pluming of themselves upon their own work, an invid- 
ious comparison of themselves with others, a certain 
attempt to bring in God as their debtor. In short, the 
spirit of the hireling spoke in that question, and it is 
against this spirit that the parable is directed. It shows 
us that in rewarding his servants here or hereafter God 



THE VINEYARD-LABORERS. 169 

acts as a Sovereign to whom it is lawful to do what he 
will with his own. He is not bound to give according 
to what his servants think of their claims, but, while 
doing ample justice to all, he is at liberty to dispense 
his undeserved gifts according to the counsel of his 
own will, for which none may call him to account. 
Instead of murmuring at seeing others preferred to 
ourselves, we may well wonder at God's goodness to 
such as we are. 

By the householder we are to understand God. As 
a householder transacts with his servants, so will the 
Lord transact with those who belong to his Church and 
enter into terms with him. By the phrase " early in 
the morning " is meant about six o'clock, called by the 
Romans the first hour. The representation of this 
householder going out to "hire laborers" affords the 
picture of a- scene which the return of every morning 
exhibits at the gate of an Eastern city. There the 
workmen assemble in groups, and masters may be seen 
going from one to another engaging them for their 
several occupations. It must frequently happen that 
there will be a multitude of loiterers, either from the 
market being overstocked with hands or from numbers 
being rejected through weakness or want of skill. 
Morier, during his tour in Persia, resided some time in 
the city of Hamadan. Every morning he saw, about 
sunrise, a great multitude of persons assemble in a 
large open square which was used as a market-place, 
with their tools in their hands, waiting to be hired. 
Some of them often remained till late in the day 
without meeting with an employer, and on asking 
them, in the very words of this parable, "Why stand 
ye here all the day idle?" he received the answer here 



170 THE PARABLES OF JESUS. 

given, though they had never heard of it : " Because 
no man hath hired us." 

Man's coming into connection with God is from God; 
the call is of grace, for on this is grounded the salvation 
of sinners. "The spark of " grace which we have to 
nurse, God by his Spirit kindled in our bosoms ; it was 
his hand on the helm that turned us round, and whether 
we were first, as some are, driven to Christ by terrors, or, 
as others are, were sweetly drawn to him by the attrac- 
tion of his love, any way it was the Lord's doing, Je- 
sus — all praise be to his grace! — being at once the Alpha 
and Omega of salvation, the Author as well as the Fin- 
isher of our faith. A great truth this ! It finds fit and 
glorious expression yonder, where the saints, descending 
from their heavenly thrones, cast blood-bought crowns 
at Jesus' feet, and was well put by the simple Christian, 
who, on being taunted with believing the doctrine of 
election, replied, ' I know that God chose me, because, 
unless he had first chosen me, I am sure I never would 
have chosen him.' " To hire indicates a free compact. 
God calls, and will bestow salvation ; the sinner must 
consent, receive the call. The hiring contains within 
itself a reward, which is likewise of grace, for God, as 
Lord of his creatures, is not bound to give any special 
recompense, but he wishes, through the promise of this, 
to make men the more ready to accept of his gracious 
call. Not merely preachers, but all the called, are 
laborers, and are so named, partly on account of their 
dependence on God, and partly to intimate that in the 
attainment of salvation all must proceed upon the 
dutiful subjection of man to the will of God. 

The Church is often represented in Scripture under 
the symbol of a vineyard. Thus in the eightieth Psalm, 



THE VINEYARD-LABORERS. 171 

" Thou hast brought a vine out of Egypt, thou hast cast 
out the heathen, and planted it. Thou preparedst room 
before it, and didst cause it to take deep root, and it 
filled the land. The hills were covered with the shadow 
of it, and the boughs thereof were like the goodly- 
cedars. She sent out her boughs unto the sea, and her 
branches unto the river." One reason for this frequent 
comparison perhaps was that vineyards of old were the 
most valuable kind of property, and were tended with 
special care. 

The "penny" which the householder agreed to give 
the laborers first hired for a day's service was the Ro- 
man denarius, a silver coin in value about seventeen 
cents. Though this may seem to us a small remunera- 
tion, yet it was not so, for the purchasing power of silver 
was much greater then than now. The wages of the 
laborers represent the reward which God confers upon 
his servants, but this must be taken with certain lim- 
itations, especially these two: 1, That the reward is 
partly a thing now begun, and partly something that is 
completed in heaven ; 2, That the value of the reward 
depends essentially on the disposition of heart with 
which the workman receives it. 

In the East, vineyards, which are generally on the 
mountain-sides, require a great amount of labor. The 
steepness of the slopes on which the vine grows best 
greatly increases the owner's toil. In many cases the 
terraces must be supported by strong stone walls, and 
im! only must the manure be carried on men's shoulders 
up tin; steep slope, but in some cases even the soil itself 
is borne up in the same way and laid upon the bare 
rocks. In spring they prepare the soil, in summer 
they prune and tic up the vine-branches, and in autumn 



172 THE PARABLES OF JESUS. 

all the joyous labor of the vintage comes on. The 
householder gives the called their appointed task. 
Never should it be forgotten that the disciples of Christ 
are to be working disciples. Men are introduced into 
the gospel not only to enjoy its fruits, but to work 
therein. True religion is eminently practical. It is 
the devotion of the heart and life to God. It is walk- 
ing in the way of his commandments. It is doing the 
will of our Father in heaven. There are works of 
devotion, works of self-denial, works of benevolence 
and mercy. These works are fully specified in the 
word of God, and for the discharge of them sufficient 
grace is provided. 

" If faith produce no works, I see 
That faith is not a living live. 
Tims faith and works together grow, 
No separate life they e'er can know : 
They're soul and body, hand and heart. 
What God hath joined let no man part." 

About nine o'clock of the day, " the third hour," the 
householder, finding himself still slack of hands, re- 
turns to the market-place and hires others. He does 
the same at twelve, and the same again at three o'clock, 
promising the laborers, since they could have no claim 
to a full day's wages, to pay them whatever was right. 
By and by the sun sinks low and the shadows lengthen ; 
another hour, and the chance of an engagement is gone 
from any who are standing in the market-place. Yet 
once more, late though it be, the householder returns, 
and, undertaking to give them also what was right, he 
hires others, who betake themselves to work, confiding 
in his justice, perhaps also in his generosity. Even in 
the Christian Church, where all enjoy the means of 



THE VINEYJRD-LAEOREBS. 173 

outward fellowship, some come in tender childhood, 
others in the season of youth, others only in ripened 
manhood, or even not till declining age, to a living and 
enlightened fellowship with the Redeemer, when alone 
they can regard themselves as laborers of the Lord and 
apprehend the true design of their being. It will be 
observed that all in the market-place were invited into 
the vineyard. The invitations of the gospel are ad- 
dressed to all ; all are welcome to embrace them, and if 
any do not accept them they will never forget it is their 
own fault, and their own fault alone. 

Let us not fail to learn the lessons with which the 
question is freighted which was addressed to those found 
in the market-place at the eleventh hour : " Why stand 
ye here all the day idle f" Does not this teach us that 
all is idleness, however laborious it may be, which is 
not in some shape or way, directly or indirectly, asso- 
ciated with our own preparation for eternity or with the 
progress of the kingdom of God upon earth ? While we 
are doing nothing for Christ we are standing idle, how- 
ever busy we may otherwise be. 

" There is," says an eloquent divine, " such a thing as 
laborious idleness. Busy? So was the shepherd on 
the Alps mentioned by Dugald Stewart who spent fif- 
teen years of life learning to balance a pole on his chin ; 
and the philosopher sagely remarks, ' How much good, 
had i hoy been directed to a noble object, this diligence 
and perseverance would have accomplished!' Busy? 
So have T seen the miller's wheel, which went round 
ami round, bul idly, grinding no corn. Busy? So, in 
a way, was tin: Russian who, facing the winter's cold, 
nor regarding the cost of massive slabs brought at great 
labor from frozen lake and river, built him an icv 



174 THE PARABLES OF JESUS. 

palace, within whose glittering, translucent walls, wrap- 
ped in furs and shining in jewels, rank and beauty held 
their revelry and the bowl and the laugh and the song 
went round. But with soft breath and other music and 
opening buds spring returned, and then, before the eyes 
that had gazed with wonder on the crystal walls of that 
fairy palace as they gleamed by night with a thousand 
lights or flashed with the radiance of gems in the bright 
sunshine, it dissolved, nor left 'a rack behind ' — its 
pleasures 'vanity/ its expense 'vexation of spirit.' 
Busy? So, in a way, are the children who, when the 
tide is at the ebb, with merry laughter and rosy cheeks 
and nimble hands build a castle of the moist sea-sand — 
the thoughtless urchins, types of lovers of pleasure and 
of the world, so intent on their work as not to see how 
the treacherous, silent tide has crept around them, not 
merely to sap and undermine, and with one rude blow 
of its billow demolish the work of their hands, but to 
cut off their retreat to the distant shore and drown their 
frantic screams and cries for help in the roar of its re- 
morseless waves. From a deathbed, where all he toiled 
and sinned and sorrowed for is slipping from his grasp, 
fading from his view, such will his life seem to the 
busiest worldling; he spends his strength for naught 
and his labor for that which profiteth not. With an 
eye that pities because it foresees our miserable doom, 
Clod calls us from such busy trifling, from a life of 
laborious idleness, to a service which is as pleasant as it 
is profitable, as graceful as it is dutiful, saying, ' Work 
out your salvation ; work while it is called to-day, see- 
ing that the night cometh when no man can work."' 
" Why stand ye idle?" Is it because you have no 
work to do? Have you no mind to get enlightened? 



THE VINEYARD-LABORERS. 175 

Do you know your nature, your origin and end? Are 
you acquainted with God, the Mediator, the plan of 
salvation, your obligations, duty and happiness ? Have 
you no heart to get renewed, no soul to be saved ? Have 
you no God to glorify ? Have you no fellow-creature 
to benefit? Why stand ye here idle — upon earth, a 
stage for action, a field intended for labor, a field of 
battle for fighting against the enemies of your souls? 
Why stand ye idle — ye rational and immortal creatures 
who are favored with the light of the gospel, and have, 
or may have, companions to walk and work with? 
Why stand you idle, as if you meant to work ? You say 
by your very attitude, " I go, sir," and yet you do not go. 
Why stand ye all the day idle ? Is the work required 
to be done needless and vain ? Is it unreasonable and 
difficult? Is the Master self-appointed and assuming, 
and one who has no right to your services? Is he 
false and perfidious, and one who will not reward you 
for them ? or hard and austere, and whom it is difficult 
to please? Are the wages uncertain or worthless or 
transitory ? Ever since our infancy God has called us, 
by every sermon we have heard, by every warning and 
mercy we have received, by good advice and good 
examples, by good thoughts put into our minds, even 
the secret influence of his Holy Spirit, so that if we are 
idle (as too many are to the sixth, the ninth, the eleventh 
hour), we cannot say we are idle because no man called 
us ; we have not this excuse. If we are idle in what 
concerns our souls, it is because we do not choose to 
work. 

"So when even was come, the lord of the vineyard 
saith unto bis steward, Call the laborers, and give them 
their hire, beginning from the las! unto the first." 



176 THE PARABLES OF JESUS. 

Here begins the second divisioD of the parable, the 
distribution of the reward and justification of the 
manner of doing it. God reckons the laborer worthy 
of his reward. How could his promise fail, since his 
word is true? In biddiug his steward to pay his 
laborers the same evening, the householder acted con- 
sistently with the merciful commaud of the law, which 
enjoined concerning the hired servant, " At his day thou 
shalt give him his hire, neither shall the sun go down 
upon it, for he is poor, and setteth his heart upon it." 
Christ is the steward — or the overseer rather — set over 
all God's house. The whole economy of salvation has 
been put into his hands, and in this, of course, the 
distribution of rewards. Mark the order of payment 
in the parable ! The steward, acting under special 
instructions, called first the men who had entered the 
vineyard at five o'clock and quitted it at six, and gave 
each a denarius ("penny") for his hour's work. This 
order of payment was necessary to give opportunity for 
the complaint which was about to be made, for had the 
paying followed the order of the hiring, those first hired 
would have been off to their homes with their wages, 
nor have had their envy roused by the generosity which 
made all alike. Surprised by the munificence of their 
employer, the men who had labored the shortest time 
retired toward their homes with delight. Afterward 
those who had labored one half, and those who had 
labored three fourths of the day, were called in succes- 
sion, and each received also a denarius. Last of all came 
the men who had labored from morning till night. 
They had been standing near, and had observed that 
all their fellow-laborers, not excepting even those who 
had been employed only an hour, received the same 



THE VINEYARD-LABORERS. 177 

uniform reward, each man " a penny." As this process 
was going on, they cherished in silence the expectation 
that when their turn should come they would receive 
more of the master's money because they had done 
more of his work. But the steward gave each of these 
men also a "penny," and no more. Not able to conceal 
their disappointment, although they were well aware 
that they had no legal claim for more than they had 
received, they broke out into murmurs against their 
employer. Though it was the sum for which they bar- 
gained, yet they thought themselves unfairly treated 
because others, who had not worked nearly so long, 
received the same. The master, however, would not 
listen to their complaint. There was no ground for it. 
Might he not do what he would with his own ? Might 
he not give to whom he pleased ? for a whole day's pay 
for an hour's work was almost a free gift. What was 
it to them if he chose to show such kindness? Let 
them take their due and depart. He had kept nothing 
from them of what was their right, though he had given 
to others what was far beyond their right. The expres- 
sion, " Is thine eye evil ?" is figuratively and proverbially 
put for, Art thou envious? The eye here is put for the 
person, because the sight of the prosperity of others is 
the usual incitement to envy. Because I am good — i. e. 
because I have shown kindness to these poor men, who 
stood waiting for employment almost the whole day, 
and found none. It will be noticed that God himself 
ascribes what he gave to the last-called laborers to 
nothing but his free goodness, thus denying all claim 
to his favor on the ground of merit. The wretched 
principle of envy frets and mourns when other men are 
happy ; it finds faull with God in t\w administration 



1 78 THE I '. 1 11 A B L ES OF JES I X 

of his grace and mercy, and it is a dreadful scourge to 
every one who cherishes it in his heart. God has an 
undoubted right to confer special favors <m whom he 
pleases. It is lawful for him to do what he will with 
his own. Shall we complain because others surpass us 
in gifts and graces? It is still more absurd to complain 
that men are made our equals. 

This spirit of jealous dislike that others should be as 
favorably regarded as ourselves, because we think that 
they do not deserve it as well, is, alas! too often met 
with even among the followers of Jesus. We are all 
too prone to magnify our day of toil aud labor, its bur- 
den and its heat, and to overlook the work of others, or 
at least to consider our own as in many respects much 
better. We would by no means deny their excellence, 
but we will not put it on a level with our own. 

" Take that thine is, and go thy way." "There is 
here," says Trench, " a teaching by contraries ; it is 
saying, Since you cannot conceive such a murmuring 
spirit as that here held up before, you, and which you 
feel to be so sinful and hateful, finding place in the per- 
fected kingdom of God, check betimes its beginnings — 
all inclinations to look grudgingly at your brethren, 
who, having in time past grievously departed from God, 
have now found a place beside yourselves in his king- 
dom, and are sharers in the same spiritual privileges; or 
to look down upon and despise those who occupy a less 
important held of labor, who are called in the prov- 
idence of God to endure and suffer less than your- 
selves; check- all inclinations to pride yourselves on 
your own doings, as though they gave you a claim 
of right upon God, instead of accepting all of the 
free mercy and undeserved bounty of God, and confess- 



THE VINEYARD-LABORERS. 179 

ing that you as well as others must be saved entirely 
by grace." 

"So the last shall be first, and the first last: for many 
be called, but few chosen." 

This is not spoken by the householder, but by Christ, 
and hence does not form a part of the parable, the de- 
sign of which, as explanatory of this saying, is once 
again pointed out, with a manifest reference to chapter 
xix. 30. This saying may be regarded as meaning 
that many who, like the young ruler, are " first " in 
outward advantages and in appearances of piety and 
virtue, should be " last " in the esteem of God ; and 
that the " last," according to human opinion — those 
who are rejected by such as judge according to outward 
appearances — shall be " first," or the highest in the 
divine favor. Or it may be regarded as teaching that 
many who enter late into the service of God may yet 
have the first reward, and many who enter early into 
that service may have the last reward. 

This may be fairly illustrated in such a case as this : 
" Many persons are early called to the knowledge of 
the truth. They hear the gospel in early years, they 
cordially embrace it, their hearts come under the divine 
influence, and quietly and gently they pass through life 
blameless ; not specially distinguished, nor characterized 
to the extent to which they should be by making sac- 
rifices for the gospel, but still true Christians ripening 
for glory. Others, again, hear the gospel call at thirty 
or forty years of age — nay, some at seventy. They joy 
in the gospel, they embrace it cordially, but they con- 
cent rate into the last hours of their life a degree of 
energy, an amount of vigor, a singleness of eye, a sim- 
plicity of purpose, a devotedncss of heart, that are 



180 THE P ARABLES OF JESUS. 

greater, though not longer, than all the efforts and sac- 
rifice of all those that were called before them. Such, 
for instance, was the case with the apostle Paul. He 
was called, it may be, at forty years of age, yet he was 
more abundant in labors than all the apostles. Such 
was the case with John Newton. He was called into 
the gospel at a late age, yet that man's life was a life 
of wonderful vigor. So that when we look at what 
some of these men have been, we must be astonished 
at what human energy is capable of when sustained 
and sanctified by the Holy Spirit of God. Now, then, 
Paul, called at forty, may have a richer reward than 
John, called young; and John Newton, called late in 
life, may have a higher seat in the kingdom of heaven 
than many who were called in boyhood and walked 
consistently to the end of their pilgrimage." 

A distinguished biblical scholar finds such difficulty 
in harmonizing these words, "the last shall be first," 
with the teaching of the parable that all are to be on 
the same footing, that he would wholly disjoin them 
from the parable, as having been by accident brought 
into this connection. But the parable does not teach 
absolute equality, for when some of the laborers were 
bitterly displeased at the partial course of the house- 
holder, he does not justify himself in his reply, on the 
ground that all were treated precisely alike, but that, 
being just to the murmurers, he had the most perfect 
right to be generous to the others. Besides, what is 
this " gift " referred to in the words, " I will give unto 
this last even as unto thee " ? It is, we believe, eternal 
life, or, in other words, God himself. This, rightly 
understood, therefore, will expose the error of sup- 
posing that the parable involves a declaration that all 



THE VINEYARD-LABORERS. 181 

who are saved will be in absolute equality. This gift is 
and will be to each man as he is prepared to receive it. 
Eternal life is the portion of those who are found at 
the evening faithful workmen in God's vineyard. But 
" if the vision of God constitutes the blessedness of the 
future world, then they whose spiritual eye is most 
enlightened will drink in most of his glory." Accord- 
ing to the enlargement of the vessel, " it will receive 
more amply of the divine fullness ;" and thus with one 
re ward at last to all, even as it was given to Abraham 
through faith long ago — "I am thine exceeding great 
reward " — it shall still happen that " there are first 
which shall be last, and last first." Some, by the very 
largeness of the capacity to receive and enjoy, shall be, 
as it were, before others avIio started in the race before 
them, and some who have "borne the burden and heat 
of the day," though not less full, yet according to the 
measure of their stature shall be as " the last." 

" For many be called, but few chosen." If we should 
understand by these words that many hear the call of 
the gospel, but few are chosen by God and admitted 
through regeneration into his family, it would not be 
possible, as far as we can perceive, to assign to them any 
proper connection with the lesson of the parable. By 
the terms in which this sentence is introduced it is 
clearly intimated that it is the very conclusion and 
kernel, so to speak, of the doctrine which the parable 
\\:i- Intended In convey. In that direction, therefore, 
we niii-t seek for its meaning. The nature and variety 
of rewards in the kingdom of grace is the only and pre- 
vailing theme of the parable. The word "chosen" is 
sometimes applied in Scripture t<> thai which is best of 
its kind, more than ordinarily good. This phrase, whether 



182 THE PARABLES OF JESUS. 

used proverbially before Christ's time or not, is in nature 
and structure proverbial. He either found it a prov- 
erb and used it, or he made it a proverb there and then, 
for such it essentially is. It seems to have been em- 
ployed by him on more than one occasion, and differ- 
ently applied at different times. In the present use of 
it, by taking the term " called " (as we believe it should 
be taken) as signifying not all to whom the call of the 
gospel is addressed, but those only who are effectually 
called — not those who only hear, but those who also 
obey the call, — taking the term in this sense, which is 
a sober and scriptural view, we find that there is here 
not a distinction between saved and lost, but between 
two classes of the saved. The " called " and the 
" chosen " are both true disciples of Christ and heirs 
of eternal life, and yet there is some distinction between 
them. The general sentiment is this : 

Many are called into the kingdom of Christ and enjoy 
its rewards, but few are chosen to those high positions 
of trust and usefulness to which are attached the higher 
rewards of heaven ; or to such a spirit of love for the 
service of Christ as to be wholly free from the narrow 
prejudices of those who draw their motives of obedience 
principally from the rewards annexed thereto. " Very 
many are summoned, and very many obey and come 
into the vineyard, and are true Christians, but very few 
are choice, chief and distinguished Christians, who, last 
in time, shall be from their sacrifices and sufferings 
greatest and first." 

Some obvious practical lessons may be appended to 
the exposition. 

The work to which we are called is like vineyard- 
work. Its parts are to prepare the ground of our 



THE VINEYARD-LABORERS. 183 

hearts by penitence, prayer and meditation, uprooting 
all evil weeds, and seeking to have the good seed both 
sown in them and watered from above; to tend dili- 
gently the plant of grace as it springs up, that it may 
be fruitful in good works ; to fence ■ our hearts in by 
watchfulness and circumspection, persuading and assist- 
ing all others, as far as may be, to do the same. Two 
things, we must not forget, are necessary to success — the 
terrestrial labor, which is ours, and the celestial labor, 
which is God's. 

Let none put off the great concern. As soon as they 
were called, at whatever hour of the day it was, these 
men went into the vineyard. Some who are continually 
being called are still putting off obeying the call. They 
"will obey later in life, not now." This is dangerous 
work. Your day may come to a close before you are 
aware. Now is the accepted time. Be it remembered 
that this parable furnishes no encouragement to rely on 
a deathbed repentance. The laborers who entered the 
vineyard at the close of the day were not called till then. 
They had no offer till the eleventh hour, and accepted 
the very first they received. Besides, the eleventh hour 
is not the hour of death, but the last period of a short 
life, and those who are then called labor one hour, or 
one-twelfth part of life. The case of these eleventh- 
hour laborers, consequently, affords us no encourage- 
ment to put off what concerns our salvation for a year, 
or a day, or even an hour. One thief on the cross was 
sivcd, that none should despair, but only one, that none 
should presume. 

There is encouragement to us here to turn from past 
idleness to holy duties. There is salvation for the oldest 
criminal at the latest year of his pilgrimage upon earth. 



184 THE PARABLES OF JESUS. 

If a man postpone the thoughts of < !<><! and eternity 
until old age, calculating on this, that is a very differ- 
ent thing, but if at tins moment we find him old, with 
one fool on the brink of the grave and one foot in it, to 
him there is freely, fully offered instant peace with God, 
just as truly, as plainly, as it is offered to the youngest 
man or woman upon earth. 

Those in a gospel land who are trifling life away, 
doing God no service and making no preparation for 
eternity, cannot say, as did some of the servants in the 
parable, "No man hath hired us." They have been 
called again and again, and are called still. Why are 
they not hired? Is it not because they are unwilling to 
be? They love not the Master, but prefer Belial ; they 
love not the work, but prefer sin; they love not the 
wages, but prefer hell. Would they but consent to 
engage in the Master's service, what would he not 
give them? He would confer upon them an estate, a 
crown, a kiugdom — yea, a heavenly inheritance, an im- 
mortal crown, a kingdom that cannot be moved. He 
stands ready to make them even sons, heirs — heirs of 
God, joint-heirs with Christ. 

"There shall the good of earth be found at last, 

Where dazzling streams and vernal fields expand — 
Where Love her crown attains, her trials past, 
And, filled with rapture, hails the ' better land.' " 



^TME*TWO*M&^ 



" Repent, return, and. live ! 

He who no penitent disdains 
New heavens, new earth can give. 

Simple obedience shall restore 
Green fields and sunny skies ; 

And, hearkening to his voice, bring more 
Than Eden to their eyes." 
16 * 185 



sS But what think ye ? A certain man had two sons ; and he came 

29 to the first, and said, Son, go work to-day in my vineyard. He an- 
steered and said, I will not: but after-ward he repented, and went. 

30 And he came to the second, and said like-wise. And he anrwered and 

31 said, I go, sir: and -went not. Whether of them twain did the will 
of his father ? They say unto him, The first. Jesus saith unto 
them, Verily I say unto you, That the publicans arid the harlots go 

32 into the kingdom of God before you. For John came unto you in the 
-way of righteousness, and ye believed him not : bid the publicans and 
harlots believed him : and ye, -when ye had seen it, repented not after- 
-ward, that ye might believe him. 

Matt. xxi. 28-32. 



THE TWO SONS. 



r I \HE Saviour's parables relate impartially a few 
-*- circumstances which awaken the moral sense, and 
then leave the mincl to its own conclusions. Our eyes, 
as we read them, are turned unawares upon our temper 
and behavior. We make the application for ourselves, 
where another would not be allowed to make it, and 
fix the guilt where it is due. The duties of self-exam- 
ination and amendment are thus most skillfully and 
agreeably taught, and the divine instructions of our 
heavenly Teacher become the crucible in which our 
thoughts and aifections may be poured, and from which 
they must issue refined and purified. 

The peculiarity of our Lord's teachings, just stated, 
comes forward with unusual prominence in the parable 
now before us. Look at the position he then occupied. 
The priests and the elders of the people, who were both 
authorized and bound to take cognizance of all religious 
pretensions, had asked Jesus, while he taught in the 
temple, as though he had not given sufficiently clear 
proof that his mission was from God, "By what 
authority doest thou these things? And who gave 
thee this authority?" In answer to these quest ions, 
which were so unreasonable, the Saviour asked them, 
"Whence was the baptism of John? Was it from 



188 THE PARABLES OF JESUS. 

heaven or of men?" — a merely human work, or one 
with divine authority ? The answer to this, according 
to the condition which was stated, would have, at the 
same time, furnished an answer to their own question. 
They clearly foresaw that if they should admit the 
divine character of John's baptism, they would lay 
themselves open to the charge of gross inconsistency 
in not having believed him, and in denying the Messiah- 
ship of Him whom he heralded. Equally well were 
they aware that if they should declare John's baptism 
to have been of men, they would excite the multitude 
against themselves, inasmuch as the people held the 
Baptist for a prophet. They were, consequently, in a 
dilemma, and in the circumstances considered it better 
to say, "We cannot tell." 

This ignorance, however, which they avowed, was 
not real, but feigned for the occasion. The two possible 
cases lay open to their discernment, but in their deprav- 
ity they could not bring themselves to give honor to 
the generally admitted truth. They uttered the oppo- 
site of what they both thought and felt ; their internal 
thoughts and outward conduct were in opposition to 
each other, which is the essence of hypocrisy. It there- 
fore became necessary for our Lord to rebuke this master- 
vice of the priests, elders and Pharisees, and to exhibit 
to them the impurity of their hearts, notwithstanding 
the high pretensions to zeal and sanctity which they 
made. Such a rebuke was administered in this parable, 
and yet it was done in so tender a manner that, whilst 
those to whom it was directed would feel its power, they 
still would not be likely to despair of salvation. 

Under the image of two sons of one father two great 
moral divisions of men are described, in one or other 



THE TWO SONS'. 189 

of which might be ranged almost all with whom our 
blessed Lord came in contact. 

Go work. God assigns the sphere of our spiritual 
action and prescribes the nature of our employment. 
He calls us to our sahation-worh. Though it is true 
that " he worketh in us both to will and to do of his 
own good pleasure/' yet are we to remember that whilst 
he works in us, he also works by us. He saves us, but 
he effects our salvation by giving energy and application 
to our own powers. We are not to sit still or stand 
idle, but to work The principle of life, light and in- 
fluence is sovereign in its communication, yet it is a 
principle of action. 

God has assigned us providential work. It has pleased 
him to make us the instruments of his goodness. We 
must " serve our generation according to his will." We 
must care for the suffering, the poor, the fatherless, 
orphans, widows, the afflicted and the oppressed — all 
classes and conditions of men — to promote their bodily 
comfort, their mental improvement, and especially their 
spiritual welfare. 

The command to tvork, it will be observed, was 
affectionate. Here was nothing harsh or tyrannical. 
The precept was given with authority, but it is the 
authority of a parent. He addresses him as his " 8071" 
and thus conveys the idea of relationship between 
them, as well as of community of interest. This 
endearing address indicates the fatherly affection of 
God with which he would exhort careless sinners to 
repentance. 

Notice next the period of labor required: "Go work 
to-day." The word to-day does not imply that God's 
service is t<> be of limited duration, but conforms simply 



190 THE PARABLES OF JESUS. 

to what actually takes place in human affairs. Nothing 
is more common than for the head of a family to say to 
his sons, Go :iinl do such a piece of work to-day, and 
to-morrow do so and so. Daytime is working time. 
Life is the day for religious Working. Jesus said, " I 
must work the works of Him that sent me while it is 
day : the night cometh, when no man can work." As 
the day is divided into twelve hours, so life is distrib- 
uted into different ages — childhood, youth, manhood, 
middle age, declining years, old age. Each period re- 
quires from us different duties or kinds of work. There 
are in life also different states and conditions— a single, 
a married state, that of children, parents, servants, mas- 
ters, the condition of poverty or wealth, of dependence 
or power. And from these, too, arise various duties. 
There are also different advantages, opportunities and 
means for acquiring knowledge and grace and becom- 
ing holy and useful, occasioning increased obligations. 
What a transient period is the day of life ! How soon 
it passes away ! How often interrupted and frequently 
curtailed by sudden and early death ! How important 
that we should improve it, and improve it at once, for 
the great purpose for which it has been given ! 

In noticing the reception which the command of the 
father has, we shall consider separately the cases of the 
two sons, beginning with that of the second. 

"And he answered, and said, I go, sir." This answer 
he had ready, and it was sound in substance and smooth 
in form. It was a model answer from a son to his 
parent : " I go, sir " — without hesitation or complaint. 
" I am not sure," says one, " that the father was over- 
joyed at the promptness and politeness of this reply : 
probably he had received as lair promises from the same 



THE TWO SONS. 191 

quarter before, and seen them broken. At all events, 
this young man's fair word was a whited sepulchre ; he 
did not obey his father. Whether he fell in with trivial 
companions on his way to the vineyard, and was induced 
to go with them in another direction, or thought the day 
too hot and postponed the labor till the morrow, I know 
not ; but he said, and did not. It was profession with- 
out practice. The tender vine-shoots might trail on the 
ground for him till their fruit-buds were blackened ; he 
would not put himself to the trouble of tying them up 
to the stakes, although the food of the family should 
be imperiled by his neglect." 

Among those whom this second son represents aie 
those who have a warmth of natural feeling and a great 
susceptibility of impression, which make them promis- 
ing subjects for any stirring and touching appeal. Such 
persons are easily excited, and both their fears and 
sympathies will readily answer to a powerful address or 
a sorrowful narrative. They are not made of that harsh 
stuff which seems the predominant element in many 
men's constitutions, but are yielding and malleable, as 
though the moral artificer might work them without 
difficulty into what shape he would. There are many 
who answer this description in every congregation. It 
cannot but be believed that when the minister puts forth 
all his earnestness in some appeal to the conscience these 
persons will accept the deliverance proposed by the gos- 
pel, with so much interest -do they listen to all that is 
said. What is done by a faithful sermon is done also 
by providential dispensations when God addresses them 
through some affliction. If we visit them when death 
has entered their households, we find nothing of the 
harshness and reserve of sullen grief, bul nil thai open- 



192 THE PARABLES OF JESUS. 

ness to counsel and all that readiness to own the mercy 
of thejudgmenl which seem indicative of such a soften- 
ing of the heart as promises to issue in its genuine con- 
version. II" we treat the chastisement under which they 
labor as a message from God, and translate it thus into 
<•oiniiK.ii language, " Son, go work to-day in my vine- 
yard," we meet with no signs of reluctance, but rather 
with a ready assent that we give the true meaning, and 
with a frank resolution that God shall not speak in 
vain. But what do we see as we follow these excited 
listeners from the place of assembling and these sub- 
dued mourners from the scene of affliction? Alas! 
how soon it is apparent that what is easily roused may 
be as easily lulled ! The men who have been all at- 
tention to the preacher, and whom he seemed to have 
brought completely under command, so that they were 
ready to follow him whithersoever he would lead, settle 
back into their listlessness when the stimulant of the 
sermon is withdrawn; and those whom the fires of 
calamity appeared to have melted harden rapidly into 
their old constitution when time has somewhat damped 
the intenseness of the flame. 

Those who are possessed of a good moral character, 
and trust in it, are represented by the second son. The 
Pharisees, to whom the parable had an application, were 
not, as many are accustomed to think, without a certain 
"righteousness." By warning us that our "righteous- 
ness" must exceed theirs the Saviour implies that they 
had a righteousness of some sort. Their righteousness 
consisted in strict attention to the letter of God's law 
and the observance of the outward parts of religion. 
They abstained from open acts of vice, and practiced 
strictly such religions duties as were open to man's 



THE TWO SONS. 193 

notice. They fasted often, they made long prayers, 
they were strict observers of the Sabbath. They were 
so punctual in the payment of the temple-dues that 
they " tithed even mint, rue, and all manner of herbs." 
They made their offerings regularly at God's altar ; they 
gave much alms. 

It is true, indeed, that their righteousness was in 
many respects deficient; it was external. They made 
void the moral law by their traditions, teaching that 
the mere letter of the law was all that men need at- 
tend to, without troubling themselves about its spiritual 
meaning. It was extremely partial. They made a 
selection among the divine precepts, and while they 
scrupulously obeyed some — and those chiefly of second- 
ary importance — they systematically violated others, and 
those of prime importance. It was ostentatious. All 
they did was "to be seen of men;" an evil motive 
tainted all their religious and moral duties. Still, they 
established a high character for being righteous — so 
much so as to put to shame the lax and careless lives 
which too many professors of Christianity lead, and the 
neglect which is so common even of the letter of God's 
commandments. 

The scribes were looked up to by the Jewish peojile 
as the teachers of religious and moral duty, and the 
Pharisees were considered as the class which, in the 
mos1 exemplary manner, reduced their lessons to prac- 
tice The highesi idea which a carnal Jew could form 
of a religious man was a person who in his behavior 
conformed himself to the teaching of the scribes and to 
(lie example of the Pharisees. The first were consider- 
ed as the best expounders of Scripture, the latter as the 
nio-t illustrious patterns of holiness. It was a proverb 



194 THE PARABLES OF JESUS. 

among the Jews that if but two men were to enter 
the kingdom of heaven, the one would be a scribe and 
the other a Pharisee. 

Now, in view of all this, what seemed more reason- 
able to expect than that the scribes and Pharisees would 
at once fall in with the divinely-appointed plan of sal- 
vation ? Yet when John came to them in the way of 
righteousness, taught them the right way and showed 
them how a man can be righteous before God, they 
scornfully rejected the message and the mercy. As our 
Lord on a later occasion laid to their charge, "They 
said, and did not." These Pharisees have still, as to 
reliance upon works for salvation, their representatives 
on earth. We find them among those who are passing 
through life with an unblemished. reputation, attentive 
to all the relative duties, taking generously the lead in 
efforts to ameliorate the condition of their fellows, and 
therefore, apparently, the most likely to identify them- 
selves with God's people, but who, all the while, have 
no consciousness of their own sinfulness, and therefore 
rest on their own works and not on Christ's merits. 

Let us consider now the case of the first son : " He 
answered and said, I will not, bid afterward he repented, 
and went" 

The rudeness of this answer, the total absence of any 
attempt to excuse his disobedience, are both character- 
istic; he docs not take the trouble to say, like those 
invited guests, "I pray thee have me excused," but 
flatly refuses to go. It is probable that the husband- 
ni;iii had received a similar answer from the same 
quarter more than once before. This was not the first 
unseemly word which the young man had spoken to 
his father; neither himself nor his wickedness had 



THE TWO SONS. 195 

grown to maturity in a day. The habit of dishonor- 
ing his parents had sprung from a seed of evil in his 
infancy, and grown with his growth until he and it 
had reached full stature. 

"I will not." No sooner does the son hear the com- 
mand of his father than he thus answers and walks off, 
rebellious and insulting. To such a length of rudeness, 
insolence and presumption does sin sometimes carry 
men. Many persons, though not prepared to deny the 
reality of religion, yet live as if it were a falsehood or a 
fable. They scorn being identified with the atheist or 
infidel, and yet their life practically exhibits atheism or 
infidelity. They have cast off the shackles and re- 
straints which a sense of their relation to God once 
imposed. They peremptorily " refuse Him that speak- 
eth from heaven." Their language is, " With our 
tongues will we prevail ; our lips are our own ; who is 
Lord over us?" 

Who says this ? Yonder swearer, who never opens 
his mouth but to express the abomination of his heart ; 
that drunkard, whose insatiable appetite, like the horse- 
leech, cries, " Give, give, and never saith, It is enough ;" 
the fornicator, who lives in chambering and wantonness; 
the man who neglects all the ordinances of religion, who 
never calls upon the name of God, never hears his word, 
never honors his Sabbaths. These make no pretence to 
godliness, embarrass themselves with no formality, wear 
no disguise, use no hesitation. They openly show the 
image of their master impressed upon their foreheads. 
Actions speak louder than words, and nothing less than 
tihis is the dreadful language of their lives: "I will run 
the downward road ; I am resolved to perish." 

What then? Must it be believed thai over all such 



196 



THE PARABLES OF JESUS. 



spreads a dark and dismal firmament, whose gloom is 
not broken by the twinkling of a single star of hope? 
Musi it be accepted as a fixed fact that these distant and 
obstinate wanderers from God cannot, and never may, be 
brought luck to him and crowned with his benediction? 
Nol Even this son "afterward repented and went." He 
came to himself; reflection returned. Looking back, he 
saw the old man lifting up his hands to Heaven, and 
then wiping his eyes from tears. He cried, "What 
have I done? Is he not my father? Has he suffered 
me to want any proof of tenderness which he could 
show me? Do I thus requite his kindness and love? 
What was there unreasonable in the command I reject- 
ed ? He that will not work should not eat. What is 
it for a sun to work in a father's vineyard? Is it not 
laboring for himself ? Mine is the expectation. I will 
go." And he did go. Nor was he satisfied merely with 
returning and confessing his offence. I ie proved his re- 
pentance ; no sooner was he reclaimed than he Mas 
employed. 

The same manifestation has often since been repeat- 
ed. Caviling skeptics, scoffers, the openly profane, have 
heard and believed the gospel to the salvation of their 
souls. The chief of sinners have been brought to 
Christ — Zaccheus the tax-gatherer, the woman who 
was a sinner, the dying thief, the Corinthian converts, 
John Bunyan the swearing tinker, and myriads of like 
character and condition. 

"Whether of them twain did the will of his father f 
They say unto him, The first." The answer to this 
sharp question is all too easy. The light is stronger 
than is comfortable for those owl-eyed Pharisees, who 
were prowling about like night-birds in search of their 



THE TWO SONS. 197 

prey. They cannot profess inability to solve this ques- 
tion, as they had done that other (ver. 27). They could 
not but answer, " The first," because, though the other 
was false and he rude, yet his actions were better than 
his words, and his latter end than his beginning. And 
this answer suggests to us a special characteristic in the 
relationship between God and man. When God com- 
mands man, it is not merely such a commandment as 
that if man fails in his obedience to it he may yet hope 
to change his Father's purpose in issuing it. It is his 
will equally as his command, and it is at man's peril that 
this will be neglected. Nothing but misery must follow 
such neglect. No happiness is there but in submission 
to it. This view of repentance it is vastly important to 
observe. When the sinner truly repents before God, his 
mind is altered regarding this great truth. He had hith- 
erto thought Jehovah very much such an one as himself. 
He measured the Infinite by his own puny standard. So 
it was a matter of indifference to him to pay much atten- 
tion to this or that commandment, as, after all, disobe- 
dience to it might not involve so very much. But now 
he knows better. God's commandment is his will, and 
he now knows that resistance to that will inevitably 
perils the interests of his soul for ever. His mind is 
not only changed as to the propriety of his fulfilling a 
duty imposed on him, but it is also changed so as to 
receive the conviction that there lies in that command- 
i i hi it such a potency and immutability of will that eter- 
nal life or eternal death are, and must be, the alternatives 
of reception or refusal. The nature of true piety is obe- 
dience to the revealed will of God; and this obedience 
can be compensated by nothing else. The observance of 
;t!l devout forms and solemnities, (he most religious <lis- 

17 ■ 



198 



THE PARABLES OF JESUS. 



coarse, the most sanctimonious appearance, the most thor- 
ough and extensive acquaintance with Scripture, without 
this obedience is only a saying, but no true fear of God. 

" Vt /•////, / say unto you, That the publicans and harlot* 
go into thr kingdom of God before you" "The publi- 
cans and harlots were excommunicated from the Jewish 
Church: the last word specializes the usual expression, 
sinners. They are represented by the first son. Their 
earlier relation to the requirements of the law and the 
prophets was a virtual no, which often, in the expression 
of unbelief, had become an actual no. But since the 
coming of John the Baptist they had repented. The 
contrast to them is the Sanhedrin. By their hypocrit- 
ical piety they had exhibited themselves as the obedient 
ones, yet with a boastful / will, sir, and with a contempt- 
uous look upon the disobedient son. But they were the 
disobedient in relation to the Baptist and the Christ \ 
they would not be influenced even by the example of 
the publicans' repentance." 

It should be noted, however, that the words " go . . . 
before you " indicate that the door of hope was not yet 
shut upon those to whom they were addressed — that 
they were not yet irreversibly excluded from that king- 
dom ; the others, indeed, had preceded them, bu( they 
might still follow if they would. 

"For John came unto you in the way of righteousness " 
— taught you the right way, showed you how a man 
can be righteous before God, and was himself also a 
pattern of a holy life— " and ye believed him not"— 
were not made better by his ministry; "but the pub- 
licans and harlots believed him," and were many of 
them thoroughly reformed; "and ye, when ye had 
seen it" — had witnessed this wondrous reformation — 



THE TWO SONS. 199 

still remained obstinate and impenitent. Their repent- 
ance added greatly to the guilt of the Pharisees, for the 
very sight of these penitents ought to have convinced 
them of their own need of repentance. 

There is no sin that hardens the heart so much as 
pride. Let us beware of it. It is Satan's first-born. 
It possesses the wonderful faculty of occupying the 
space of any other sin which is cast out of the heart. 
Most of all, pride dreads the entrance of the Son of 
God into the heart. Then it knows its reign will be 
at an end. How it bars and bolts the doors of the heart 
against the rightful Owner ! Even the word of God 
and good example are not able to overcome it. 

And are Ave to regard the most worthless and despised 
men as patterns for imitation to the self-righteous and 
highly-esteemed Pharisees ? God forbid that we should 
ever plead for wickedness or intimate that immorality 
is preferable to morality ! Our Lord intended to estab- 
lish no such principle by these examples. He does not 
view these things as they are in their own nature, but as 
they are frequently found in their accidental relations 
and consequences. " And is it not undeniable," asks an 
eminent divine, " that persons possessed of distinguish- 
ing privileges and moral endowments are too often 
filled with pride, wrapped up in self- righteousness, 
lulled to sleep by carnal security, deeming themselves 
safe from comparisons with those who are profligate? 
Are they not too often offended when told that they must 
be indebted for salvation to grace perfectly free and un- 
merited, that they must be accepted on the same terms 
with the mosi vile, and that, however these things may 
be in themselves, they afford them no ground of de- 
pendence, yield them no claims whereof they may glory 



200 THE PARABLES OF JESUS. 

before God? An attempt to couch the eyes of those 
who say ' We see/ an offer of pardon to the innocent, 
a communication of alms to the wealthy, would only 
exasperate and disgust. But would this be the case with 
the blind, the guilty and the poor? It is comparatively 
easy to convince the more criminal — how can they deny 
the charge? to alarm them — how can they deny the 
danger ? Having no armor of defence, they can sooner 
receive a wound which will make them cry for mercy. 
Conscious that they have no righteousness of their own, 
they more readily admit that if saved at all it must be 
by grace. Having no shelter in which to hide, when 
they see the storm approaching they willingly flee for 
refuge to the hope set before them in the gospel." 



*TME * MKED * ¥INE~DRE2SERS.* 



'Jerusalem! alas I alas! of old. 
Deaf to whate'er prophetic seers foretold, 
Assailing all -whom Heaven in mercy sent, 
And murdering those that warned thee to repent I 
Thou, the world's Saviour who suspendedst high, 
His works reviled, and mocked his agony! 
How oft hath God, still gracious, striven to taring 
Thy devious brood beneath his sheltering wing, 
To save thee from the hovering eagle's power, 
And shield the unequaled misery of this hour! 
But no! thou wouldst not! Thence this signal fate I 
Thence art thou fallen! deserted! desolate!" 

201 



33 Hear another parable : There was a certain householder, which 
planted a vineyard, and hedged it round about, and digged a wine- 
press in it, and built a tower, and let it out to husbandmen, and 

34 went into a far country : And when the lime of the fruit drew 
near, he sent his servants to the husbandmen, that they might re- 

tke fruits of it. And the husbandmen took his servants, and 

36 beat one, and hilled another, and stoned another. Again, he sent 
other servants more than the first : and they did unto them likewise. 

37 But last of all he sent unto them his son, saying, They will rever- 

35 enee my son. But when the husbandmen saw the son, they said 
among themselves, This is the heir; come, let us kill him, and let 

3<p us seize on his inheritance. And they caught him, and cast him out 

40 of the vineyard, and slew him. When the lord therefore of the 

41 vineyard cometh, what will he do unto those husbandmen ? They 
say unto him, He will miserably destroy those wicked men, and will 
let out his vineyard unto other husbandmen, which shall render 

42 him the fruits in their seasons, yesus sail// unto them, Did ye 
never read in the scriptures, The stone which the builders rejected, 
the same is become the head of the corner : this is the Lord's doing, 

43 and it is marvelous in our eyes ? Therefore say I unto you, The 
kingdom of God shall be taken from you, and given to a nation 

44 bringing forth the fruits thereof. And whosoever shall fall on 
this stone shall be broken : but on whomsoever it shall fall, it will 
grind him to powder. 

Matt. xxi. 33-44. See also Mark xii. 1-12; 
Luke xx. 9-18. 
202 



THE WICKED VINE-DRESSERS. 



r I ^HIS parable is found in all the Gospels except that 
of John, and with very little variation. The 
statement of Luke that the parable was spoken to the 
people might seem discrepant with the accounts of 
Matthew and Mark that it was addressed to the Phar- 
isees, were it not that this evangelist also notes the 
presence, within hearing, of the chief priests and scribes, 
which shows that they were listeners also. This parable 
was spoken either immediately or soon after that of the 
" Two Sons." Hence the expression, " Hear another 
parable." The form of this expression implies some 
stir and excitement among his auditors, which our Lord 
hushed by calling their attention to another parable. 
Perhaps the Pharisees were giving indications of their 
displeasure by rude interruptions or by preparing to 
leave him in order to plot his death. 

In its immediate reference this parable contains, 
partly as a narrative of the past, partly as a discovery 
of the lui urc, the history of the Jewish Church. It 
manifests the riches of divine love and the benefits 
[lowing out of it to the chosen people; portrays an 
almosl inexhaustible patience and long-suffering on the 
pari of God toward the refractory and unthankful sin- 
ner ; discloses at the Same time the wickedness and 

203 



204 THE PARABLES OF JESUS. 

hardening of the sinful hear! as rising to a fearful 
height, and finally closes with a threatening of certain 
:,n,] dreadful bul most righteous judgments. But, when 
viewed m a more extended reference, this parable speaka 
also oi the genera] truths which in Christian countries 
are continually unfolding themselves, and are reflected 
anew in the history of individuals and communities 
\ lewed in either light, the description given of the 
lord of the vineyard serves to admonish us of the 
union there is in God's character of mercy and holi- 
ness, of goodness and righteousness, of patience and 
indignation. 

Mlum a proprietor has determined to appropriate as a 
vineyard a portion of ground which had previously lain 
waste or had been employed for some other purpose, his 
first care is to plant the vines. As some time must neces- 
sarily elapse before the young plants begin to bear fruit 
he may prosecute the other departments of his under- 
taking at leisure. In due time he constructs a fence 
around the field to keep out depredators, whether men or 
boa,ts, digs a vat for receiving the juice, and prepares an 
apparatus above it for squeezing the clusters quickly in 
the hurry of the vintage, and builds a tower as at once 
a shelter for the keeper and an elevated standpoint for 
the watcher by night or day. 

The Jewish Church, established by Almighty God is 
represented by the vineyard which the man in the par- 
able planted with so much care The rest of the world 
was m spiritual darkness, but God chose the Jewish 
nation to be enlightened by his word and to enjoy relig- 
ious privileges. Thus tins nation occupied, as it were 
an enclosed place. While the rest of the world uas 
spiritually in a wild state, the Jews were in a vineyard 



THE WICKED VINE-DRESSERS. 205 

carefully prepared for them. Every provision was made 
for their good, their comfort and their usefulness. God 
gave them laws and ordinances which fenced them off 
from other nations and their idolatrous practices, prom- 
ised them his protection and taught them to serve and 
please him. They were the husbandmen who were to 
occupy the vineyard. It was not theirs, but it was let 
out to them as tenants. 

"The time of the fruit" — or, rather, the time for 
" gathering the fruits " — appears to have been the time 
commonly appropriated by landlords to receiving the 
rents. The "servants" sent to receive the fruits of the 
vineyard were the Jewish prophets. They were sent by 
God at successive epochs in the history of Israel, begin- 
ning with the first and ending with the last, to call for 
the fruit of the vineyard, and each in turn to make his 
report to God as to the fertility and the produce of that 
precious deposit which had been entrusted to the Jews. 

This representation marks the attention which God 
pays to those who are favored with religious advantages. 
He expects fruit from them. Indeed, he investigates all 
his creatures to see what is in them. "His eyes are in 
every place, beholding the evil and the good. His eyes 
are upon the ways of man, and he pondereth all his 
goings. There is no darkness nor shadow of death where 
the workers of iniquity can hide themselves." God sees 
how we arc carrying on our business, what we are doing 
with our mercies and our trials; marks the manner in 
which we are filling up our relations in life; and observes 
the formation of our principles and the cultivation of 
our tempers. And remember, he is not, he cannot be, 
mistaken in his conclusions. We may err in judging our- 
selves, we may err in judging our fellow-creatures, but 



206 THE PARABLES OF JESUS. 

his judgment is always according to truth. We judge 
after outward appearance and depend on the declaration 
of others; but he Looketh on the heart, and "needeth not 
that any should testify of man, for he knew- what is in 
man." 

When God is represented as expecting fruit from the 
Jews, or from any of his creatures favored with relig- 
ious privileges, as a man expects it from his vineyard, 
there is an intimation of the reasonableness of their 
obedience ; it is what any one would expect who would 
judge by what is due and reasonable. Every one will 
admit that the lord of the vineyard had a right to demand 
a portion of its fruits, as rent, from the vine-dressers. 
So God has a right to all our obedience and to all our 
love. To him we owe all we enjoy or ever can enjoy; 
indeed, the very power of enjoyment conies from him. 
But how do men behave toward him? In the same 
manner that these vine-dressers behaved to their lord. 
They not only refuse to obey God, but are angry with 
those who reprove their disobedience. 

"And the husbandmen took his servants, and beat 
one, and killed another, and stoned another." Such was 
the reception met with from the Jews by the extraor- 
dinary ambassadors sent from time to time in the owner's 
name to demand the stipulated tribute— prophets such as 
Elijah, Elisha, Isaiah, Jeremiah and Ezekiel, men spe- 
cially commissioned by the Supreme to approach them 
with reproof and instruction. Some righteous doubtless 
there always were among them, but as a nation they 
rebelled against God and rejected and ill-treated his 
servants. 

This persecution is frequently alluded to in Scripture 
—so frequently as to show that God laid great stress 



THE WICKED VINE-DRESSERS. 207 

upon it. Elijah says, " The children of Israel have 
forsaken thy covenant, thrown down thine altars, and 
slain thy prophets with the sword." The chief priests 
"mocked the messengers of God, and misused his 
prophets." "We have another allusion to this very 
same course of treatment in the Acts of the Apostles 
in that striking appeal of Stephen's, where he says, 
"Ye stiff-necked and uncircumcised in heart and ears, 
ye do always resist the Holy Ghost : as your fathers 
did, so do ye. Which of the prophets have not your 
fathers persecuted? And they have slain them which 
showed before of the coming of the Just One, of whom 
ye have now been the betrayers and murderers." In 
Hebrews xi. 35 we have still another reference to the 
same treatment : " And others had trial of cruel niock- 
ings and scourgings, yea, moreover, of bonds and im- 
prisonment : they were stoned, they were sawn asunder, 
were tempted, were slain with the sword : they wandered 
about in sheepskins and goatskins, being destitute, afflict- 
ed, tormented." 

We have thus every portion of Scripture bearing 
testimony to the fact that the Jews maltreated, perse- 
cuted and destroyed the servants that were sent to them. 
Zedekiah smote the prophet Micah on the cheek and 
cast him into prison. Pashur, the son of Immer the 
priest, smote Jeremiah the prophet and put him in the 
stocks. Zechariah, the son of Jehoiada, testified against 
the wickedness of the people, and they stoned him 
wiih stones, at tin; commandment of the king, in the 
court of the house of the Lord. Isaiah was sawn 
asunder, Jeremiah was stoned to death, Amos was 
murdered with a club; and if wo knew the biography 
of each of the real of the prophets we should find that 



208 TEE PAEAELES OF JE8U& 

they Buffered in a similar manner. The apostles, at a 
later period, fared no better. 

How often has it been the lot of God's faithful 
servants to be hated and persecuted by those to whom 
they brought the message of salvation ! This was the 
lot of most of the first preachers of the cross of Christ 
— of many of the early Protestant Reformers — of the 
devoted Puritans, the self-denying Nonconformists, the 
steadfast Scotch Covenanters, the faithful French Hu- 
guenots. It was the lot of Calvin, Wesley, AVhitefield 
and their compeers, as it has been also of many modern 
missionaries, whose blood has crimsoned the soil of 
those whom they sought to win to Jesus and point to 
heaven. 

"Again, he sent other servants more than the first: 
and they did unto them likewise." The repeated 
messages sent by the prophets, generation after genera- 
tion, indicate not only the continued patience, long- 
suffering and wonderful compassion of God — a com- 
passion not quenched by repulsion — but also the grow- 
ing wantonness and wickedness of the people, by whom 
his servants, although sometimes effecting temporary 
reforms, were almost uniformly rejected and maltreated. 
Like these vine-dressers, who treated the servants worse 
and worse, sinners increase in wickedness, for every sin 
committed and not repented of prepares for the commis- 
sion of a greater. The greatest share of the persecution 
of Christ's true disciples has, in all ages, fallen upon the 
ministers of his religion. But it has not checked the 
wheel- of the chariot of salvation, nor will it ever do so. 
God can, and does, " make the wrath of man to praise 
him." Diocletian, the last and the worst of the Roman 
persecuting emperors, observed that the more he sought 



THE WICKED VINE-DRESSERS. 209 

to blot out the name of Christ the more legible it became, 
and that whatever of Christ he thought to eradicate, it 
took the deeper root and rose the higher in the hearts 
and lives of men. 

"But last of all he sent unto them his son." The 
words as narrated by Mark are still more affecting: 
"Having yet therefore one son, his well-beloved, he 
sent him also last unto them, saying, They will rever- 
ence my son." Both the ideas here implied were neces- 
sary to represent the love of God to sinners, his solemn 
earnestness in the demands he makes upon them, and 
how lie leaves nothing untried to secure the accomplish- 
ment of his precious designs concerning them. 

It is evident from the words "last of all" that the 
gospel scheme of salvation is the final interposition of 
God in our favor. It is the last effort of Heaven, the 
ultimate exertion of divine mercy toward the restoration 
of man. As Jesus is infinitely superior to all that were 
before him, so it may well be presumed that none will 
come after him, and that the message he brings, the re- 
deeming work he has accomplished, seals God's revela- 
tion to the children of men and finishes his intervention 
in their behalf. Besides, this is the constant language 
of Scripture : " God, who at sundry times and in divers 
manners spake in time past unto the fathers by the 
prophets, hath in these last days spoken unto us by his 
Son ;" " For if ye believe not that I am He, ye shall die 
in your sins." This is the reason, too, why the predic- 
tions relating to the Messiah refer his coming to the last 
days. These expressions, "last day," "the end of the 
world/' «tc, are applied to the age of the gospel, to show 
that it is the lasi dispensation God will vouchsafe to 
mankind. It is the final message of the Almighty. 



210 the PARABLES OF JESUS. 

"Be sent unto them his son." After repeated trials by 
his servants, the great God resolves to make one trial 
niniv, and thai by his own Son, his only Son, his be- 
loved Son. Him w il] he send to these rebellious vine- 
dressers. And he presumes that, bad as they are, they 
Would at least reverence his Son, and count themselves 
highly honored in having such a messenger sent to them. 
He might justly have sent his army to destroy them who 
had murdered his former servants, but instead of this he 
sends his Son with proposals of peace once more. What 
the relationship may be between the Father and the Son 
we know not. The expression " Son/' as applied to the 
Lord Jesus Christ, denotes something altogether different 
from what it does as applied to an earthly relationship. 
AH that we know is, that the Father is God, that the 
Son is God, and that the Spirit is God, and yet that God 
sent his only-begotten Son. And what does this teach 
us? That it is not true that God loves us because 
Christ died for us, but that Christ died for us because 
God loved us. The very common idea is, that in deal- 
ing with God the Father we have to deal with One who 
is reluctant to forgive us, and that we can only prevail 
upon him to forgive us by pressing upon his notice the 
sufferings of his Son. But that is not the gospel. The 
gospel is, that Christ is the expression of a love that was, 
not the creation of a love that was not. The gospe] is, 
that Christ came and died for us, not that God ought 
love us, but because he "so" loved us. 

" They will reverence my son." As if he should say, 
"Though they have wickedly abused and slain my ser- 
vants, surely they will not dare to treat my sou in the 
same manner. Surely, the very B igh1 of him must com- 
mand awe and reverence. This will also make them 



THE WICKED VINE-DRESSERS. 211 

ashamed of their base ingratitude and cruelty to my 
former messengers." The Greek word signifies to be 
flushed with shame as well as to reverence; and so it 
may be rendered here, " They will be struck with shame 
at my son " — that is, at " the sight of him." 

We are not to infer from this expression that God was 
ignorant of the manner in which his Son would be treated, 
or that he really expected men to receive him with rev- 
erence, for his sufferings and death were explicitly pre- 
dicted long before his appearance in the world. But 
God here speaks after the manner of men. He is 
merely stating what reception it might have reasonably 
been expected would be given to his Son, by one who 
did not know, or who did not consider, the wickedness 
of the human heart. Such a person, on seeing Christ 
sent down from heaven to assist men, would have ex- 
claimed, "Surely they will receive him with reverence 
and affection." 

Why was it reasonable to expect that, when our Saviour 
visited this world, he would be received by mankind with 
reverential affection? 1. On account of the dignity of 
Lis person. The sublimest titles are bestowed upon him 
both in the Old and the New Testament. He is styled 
Wonderful, Counselor, The Mighty, the Father of 
eternal ages, the Prince of Peace, Jehovah our Right- 
eousness, the Only-begotten of the Father, God over all, 
blessed for ever, Immanuel, Alpha and Omega, the per- 
il ct image or character of the invisible God, full of 
grace and truth, the True, the Righteous, the Holy, the 
( >!!<• having the keys of hell and death. 2. Because he 
Mas their Creator, (lie Creator of the world. By him 
were all things created. For thousands of years lie had 
been constantly showering down temporal blessings upon 



212 THE PARABLES OF JESUS. 

mankind. Id coming into the world, thru, Immannel 

••;iinc, as the apostle expresses it, "to his own," to the 
deeply-indebted pensioners of his bounty. 3. On ac- 
eonnl of the unsullied excellence of Christ's moral char- 
acter. He was the only perfect Man whom the world 
has seen since the fall. He exhibited human nature in 
the highest degree of perfection to which it can be raised. 
In him goodness and greatness were not only personified; 
but, if we may so express it, concentrated and condensed. 
He was light and love clothed with a body. 4. On 
account of the interesting information he communicated ' 
and the excellence of the doctrines which he taught. 
Even his very enemies were constrained to say, " Never 
man spake like this man." His instructions were de- 
livered not as mere opinions, not as the deductions of 
reason, but as infallible truths, as a revelation from God— 
a revelation attested by numberless miracles, and thus 
sealed with the broad seal of Heaven. Who, then, 
would not have expected to see the world flocking around 
hint, and all its philosophers with their disciples sitting, 
like Mary, at his feet to hear his words? 5. The rea- 
sonableness of the expectation that mankind should give 
the Son of God a welcome reception is mainly evident 
from the fact that he came into the world to save sinners, 
to seek and to save those who were lost. Js it not rea- 
sonable that the most amazing display of love and mercy 
should meet with the most affectionate returns of grati- 
tude from the party obliged ? Shall the Creator die for 
his creatures, the Sovereign for his rebellious subjects, the 
great Lawgiver transfer the penalty of his own law upon 
himself, in order to remove it from obnoxious criminals- 
shall he die in extremities of torture and write his love 
in characters of blood,— oh, shall he do this, and is it 



THE WICKED VINE-DRESSERS. 213 

not infinitely reasonable that his creatures, that his rebel- 
lious subjects, that obnoxious criminals, should be trans- 
ported with wonder, joy and gratitude, and that such 
miracles of love should engross their thoughts, their 
affections and their conversation? 

There is a remarkable account given by Mark which 
shows the singular point and force of the parable, where 
it is said of the vine-dressers that they said one to another 
when the son of the lord of the vineyard came, " T/iis 
is the heir ; come, let us kill him, that the inheritance may 
be ours." After the raising of Lazarus the evangelist 
informs us that the " chief priests and Pharisees gathered 
a council, and said, What do we? for this man doeth 
many miracles. If we let him thus alone, all men will 
believe in him : and the Romans will come and take 
away both our place and nation." The very original of 
the parabolic picture ! " All men will believe on him." 
Then " the Romans will come and take away our place 
and nation." Thus our position will be irretrievably 
ruined if we suffer this man to escape from us any longer. 
He will get the heritage if we do not take instant meas- 
ures to prevent it. " It is therefore expedient for us that 
one man die for the people." " This is the heir ; come, let 
us kill him, and the inheritance shall be ours." 

When the Saviour had concluded the parable he de- 
clared the punishment the lord would inflict on the vine- 
dressers: "He shall come and destroy these husbandmen, 
and .-hall give the vineyard to others." This prophecy 
was intended ;is a warning to the Jews, who had perse- 
cuted the prophets and were now plotting the death of 
the Sod of God. Christ's hearers understood that the 
warning applied to themselves, for they exclaimed, "God 
forbid!" If they had been as anxious to avoid sin as 



211 



THE PARABLES OF JESUS. 



ehey were to avoid suffering they would have escaped 
both. What must have been the expression of his coun- 
tenance when Jesus looked upon those who had answered, 
"find forbid!" for it is said, "He beheld them"! It 
must have been a look that seemed to say, " Your sorrows 
are nearer than you suppose, and greater than you can 
bear." 

The threatening just mentioned was soon executed. 
The householder came in his wrath. Jerusalem was 
destroyed by the Eonian armies, and the wicked hus- 
bandmen either perished in the siege or were led away 
into captivity. The sword of the Romans was the 
sword of the Lord, and their armies were the instru- 
ments of his vengeance. 

" It is very observable," says a distinguished scholar, 
" how the successive generations who for so many cen- 
turies have been filling up the measure of the iniquity 
of Israel are considered through the entire parable but 
as one body of husbandmen ; and this because God's 
truth is everywhere opposed to that shallow nominal- 
ism which would make such a word as ' nation ' a dead 
abstraction, a mere convenient help to the understand- 
ing. God will deal with nations as indeed being, as 
having a living unity in themselves — as, in fact, bodies, 
and not as being merely convenient mental terms to 
express certain aggregations of individuals." 

" That people, once 
So famed, whom God himself vouchsafed to call 
His chosen race, and with a guardian hand 
Deigned to protect, from Palestine exiled, 
Are doomed to wander. Although scattered thus 
Through all the globe, there is no clime which they 
Can call their own, no country where their laws 
Eold sovereign rule, lrrefragahle proof 



THE WICKED VINE-DRESSERS. 215 

That every oracle of Holy Writ 
Was given by Heaven itself." 

"Did ye never read in the Scriptures, The stone 
which the builders rejected, the same is become the 
head of the corner : this is the Lord's doing, and it is 
marvelous in our eyes ? Therefore say I unto you, The 
kingdom of God shall be taken from you, and given to 
a nation bringing forth the fruits thereof. And whoso- 
ever shall fall on this stone shall be broken : but on 
whomsoever it shall fall, it will grind him to powder." 
Thus our Lord, by a new illustration, pressed the appli- 
cation home to them. The terrestrial fact, as exhibited 
in the parable, serves to show that the son, who, as we 
have already seen, points to Christ sent by the Father 
to his own Israel, was put to death by the rebels in 
possession of the vineyard; but there its power is ex- 
hausted ; it has no means of exhibiting the other side 
of the scene — that this Son rose from the dead and now 
reigns over all. Jesus, therefore, that he might proclaim 
the whole truth, and leave his unrepenting hearers without 
excuse, referred them to a grand text from the Old Tes- 
tament Scriptures, which shows that he whom the official 
but false builders rejected and cast down was accepted 
and raised up by God. The truth contained in this 
passage is, according to Christ, a prophecy which was 
to receive its fulfillment in the conduct of the Jewish 
ruler- and of the whole people toward himself; the 
ciMiix' and issue of the whole transaction were to become 
manifest as a purpose of divine wisdom and almighty 
power j lor although the opponents of Christ had no 
respect but to his destruction, yet still their opposition 
to him, under the divine government and direction, 
gave occasion for the foundation of a new covenant of 



•21 (i 



THE PARABLES OF JESUS. 



grace, which should extend its blessings to the Gen- 
tiles. 

Note the rapid yet harmonious changes of our Lord's 
illustration of the stone. The. same stone is first a re- 
jected stone; then, second, a head corner-stone; then, 
third, a stumbling-done; and, lastly, a stone falling from 
above. Jesus becomes more and more stern as in his 
prophetic office he approaches the subject of his own 
k' n gty judgment, Shall be broken— grind him to pow- 
der. Two kinds of punishment are here referred to, 
not two different degrees of the same punishment, In 
the one the person offending is active (he stumbles 
and is broken) ; in the other passive (he is fallen upon 
and crushed). The one is a punishment only of this 
life, where alone sinners have the opportunity of stum- 
bling on the Eock of salvation, and consists in all the 
loss of peace, consolation and blessing, together with all 
the judicial blindness, bitterness of spirit, hardness of 
heart and manifold disquietudes of mind, which inevit- 
ably blight and desolate the moral condition of those 
who resist the claims of Messiah. The other punish- 
ment belongs to eternity, and consists in the fearful 
and everlasting retribution which Christ will inflict 
upon all his adversaries when he takes to himself his 
power and great glory, consigning them to final per- 
dition in utter darkness. 

It is a most precious truth that the Saviour falls on 
no one as a judgment who has not already by unbelief 
stumbled at him. And it is an unspeakably solemn 
truth that, as Luther expresses it, "all men must come 
into contact with Christ, whether for benefit or for 
stumbling." 



*-THE * ROYAL * MARRME-FEAgT. 



" Oft beneath. 
The saintly veil the votary of sin 
May lurk unseen, and to that Eye alone 
Which penetrates the inmost heart, revealed.. 

19 217 



2 The kingdom of heaven is like unto a certain king, which made a 

j marriage for his son, And sent forth his servants to call them that 

j were bidden to the wedding: and they would not come. Again, he 

sent forth other servants, saying, Tell them which are bidden, Behold, 

I have prepared my dinner: my oxen and my fallings are killed, 

j; and all things are ready : come unto the marriage. But they wade 

light of it, and went their ways, one to his farm, another to his mer- 

6 chandise : And the remnant took his servants, and entreated them 

7 spitefully, and sleiv them. But when the king heard thereof, he was 
wroth : and he sent forth his armies, and destroyed those murderers, 

S and burned up their city. Then saith he to his servants, The wed- 

a ding is ready, but they which were bidden were not worthy. Go ye 

therefore into the highways, and as many as ye shall find, bid to the 

io marriage. So those servants went out into the high-ways, and gath- 
ered together all as many as they found, both bad and good : and the 
wedding was furnished with guests. 

ii And when the king came in to see the guests, he saw there a man 

12 which had not on a wedding-garment : And he saith unto him, 
Friend, how earnest thou in hither not having a wedding-garment ? 

ij And he was speechless. Then said the king to the servants, Bind 
him hand and foot, and take him away, and cast him into outer 

j 4 darkness : there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth . For many 

are called, but few are chosen. 

Matt. xxii. 2-14. 



THE ROYAL MARRIAGE-FEAST. 



T I THERE is one circumstance concerning this parable 
-*- which renders it peculiarly solemn. It is the last 
one recorded that our Lord related in public. There 
are others which he related to his apostles in private, 
but there are no more written in the Bible which were 
spoken in the j>resence f the chief priests and the 
multitude. 

In the present parable, as compared with the pre- 
ceding one, we see how the Lord is revealing himself 
in ever clearer light as the central person of the king- 
dom, giving here a far plainer hint than there of the 
nobility of his descent. There he was indeed the Son, 
the only and beloved one, of the Householder, but here 
his race is royal, and he appears as himself at once the 
King and the King's Son. 

Some regard this parable and the one given in Luke 
(xiv. 16-24) as one and the same, alleging that the 
latter is only altered from this in some unimportant 
particulars. But the small resemblance and strong dis- 
similarity between the two ] (arables render it impossible 
tor us to concur in this opinion. Not only are they dif- 
ferent as to lime, place and hearers, but also as to scope. 

That of Luke was delivered by Jesus before the last 
journey to Jerusalem, at a meal in a private hous< — 

211) 



220 THE PARABLES OF JESUS. 

this of Matthew in the temple at Jerusalem, probably 
on llic Tuesday before the crucifixion, and in the pres- 
ence of lln 1 high priests and elders of the people. In 
that, as the hostility of the- Pharisees was not yet so 
intensely expressed, there was some hope of softening 
down and winning them to a better state of mind, and 
therefore all is gentle and persuasive ; in this there 
seems to have been left no hope, and therefore there is 
a tone of stern and unsparing severity. Our Lord thus 
adapted his teaching, not his principles, to the circum- 
stances and the persons among whom he was placed. 
In the first instance the excuses wear an air of plausi- 
bility ; in the second, no excuse is pleaded, but there is 
exhibited instead violence, insolence and contempt. In 
the first instance the deceived excuse-makers were ex- 
cluded, but in the second the city is burned up with fire 
and they themselves are utterly destroyed. 

And, again : while in the parable recorded by Luke 
nothing more is threatened than that God would turn 
from one portion of the Jewish people, from the priests 
and the Pharisees, and offer the benefits which they 
counted light of to another part of the same nation, 
the people that knew not the law, the publicans and 
harlots, with only a slight intimation of the call of the 
Gentiles, — in Matthew it is threatened that the king- 
dom of God shall be taken wholly away from the Jew- 
ish people, who had now proved themselves, with very 
few exceptions, despisers of its privileges, and should 

be given to the ( Jentiles. 

"The kingdom of heaven is like unto a certain king, 
which made a marriage for his son, and sent forth his 
Servants to call them that were bidden to the wedding: 
and they would not coiiie." There is no figure under 



THE ROYAL MARRIAGE-FEAST. 221 

which the ample provision of spiritual blessings which 
is offered in the gospel is more frequently exhibited 
than under that of a marriage-feast. The scale of 
liberality and splendor on which such entertainments 
are generally made, the multitude of guests who are 
invited to attend, and the joy that pervades the whole 
festivities are well calculated to represent the rich store 
of divine grace which the gospel table has spread; and 
if the ordinary festivals which crown the nuptial cere- 
mony afford a pleasing view of the exuberant provisions 
of the gospel, how much higher are our ideas of the 
inexhaustible riches of grace that are there displayed 
exalted when the nuptial entertainment is described as 
being given by a great and powerful monarch at the 
marriage of his son, the heir to the name and honors 
of his house? Such a splendid occasion, to grace which 
we may suppose would put in demand all the varieties 
of luxury and art which royal wealth could command, 
and in honor of which the liveliest demonstrations of 
joy would emanate from every breast, may be regard- 
ed as a beautiful and appropriate emblem of that vast 
variety and plenty of spiritual blessings which the gos- 
pel has provided for all people. 

The king is represented in the parable as sending 
forth his servants to call them that were bidden to the 
wedding. This description perfectly accords with the 
immemorial practice of the East, where persons giving 
an entertainmenl arc in the habit of despatching two 
different invitations — one when they resolve on having 
the banquet, mentioning the day and hour of the ex- 
pected meeting; and the other sent a little before the 
assembly of the guests, to announce that all the prep- 
arations for the feast are completed. This second invi- 



222 THE PARABLES OF JESUS. 

tation is sometimes, with persons of the highest rank, 
followed by a third, urging on the persons invited the 
propriety of coming without delay, and providing them 
with means of conveyance; and in the rare cases where 
such a special invitation is despatched the messenger is 
of a more respectable order than those who were charged 
with the former two. The latter invitations are given 
in the same form which the parable intimates was 
observed in ancient times: "Behold, I have prepared 
ray dinner, my oxen and my fatlings are killed, and all 
things are ready" — the simple manners of the East hav- 
ing established the custom of mentioning the principal 
articles of which an entertainment is to consist. 

This "marriage-supper" contains enough for all 
sinners, all needful spiritual blessings both for time and 
for eternity — mercy for the pardon of all sin, grace tor 
the renewal and sanctification of the soul, the assurance 
of God's love, peace of conscience, joy in the Holy 
Ghost, increase of grace, perseverance therein to the 
end, a sure title to the kingdom of heaven, and meet- 
ness for the everlasting enjoyment of its glory and 
blessedness. The blessings which it provides are inesti- 
mable, having been purchased with the infinitely pre- 
cious blood of the Bridegroom himself. 

These blessings are also free, for all sinners through- 
out the world who enjoy the privilege of a preached 
gospel are invited to come: "Ho, every one that thirst- 
eth, come ye to the waters, and lie that hath no money, 
come ye, buy, and eat, yea, come, buy wine and milk 
without money and without price;" "And the Spirit 
and the bride say, Come. And let him that heareth 
say, Come. And let him that is athirst come. And 
whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely." 



THE ROYAL MARRIAGE-FEAST. 223 

The " servants " whom " £/ie .Km^ " serii forth first were 
the apostles and the seventy disciples ; these were com- 
missioned to invite those who had been already bidden 
to this marriage-supper — namely, the Jews in the time 
of our Lord, who had previously been offered the pro- 
visions of this feast by the prophecies and calls of the 
Old Testament Scriptures, by John the Baptist, and 
even by the Bridegroom himself. This peculiarity of 
the invitation is important in connection with the 
severity of the punishment which was subsequently 
inflicted on the recusauts. They did not repudiate the 
invitation when it was first addressed to them. By 
retaining it, and enjoying the advantage of being ac- 
counted the king's guests during the interval, they 
pledged themselves to attend the marriage-festival and 
honor their sovereign by their presence. Their abrupt 
refusal after all was ready to receive them partook of 
the nature both of breach of engagement and disloyalty. 

" They would not come" This, as already hinted, was 
not through any want of knowledge of the feast or of 
the invitation, but the bad state of their minds kept 
them back ; it was just as if they did not hear the call. 
These favored but unthankful people were not taken 
at their word; after the first refusal another and more 
urgent invitation was sent. The reiterated mission of 
the servants to the class who were originally invited 
may be understood to point to the ministry of the Lord 
and the Seventy until the time of the crucifixion, and 
tin' second mission of the apostles after the Pentecost 
and under the ministration of the Spirit. 

"All things ore ready: come unto the marriage." 
Such is flic language of a benignant God to a perish- 
ing world, not in thai age only, bui in every age and 



224 THE PARABLES OF JESUS. 

in oar own. Every argent appeal of the ministers of 
Christ to their charges, every new proclamation "of the 
goodness and severity of God," every exhortation that, 
sinners themselves, they jet feel constrained to make to 
fellow-sinners,— all alike are reiterated utterances of the 
one perpetual invitation of the Lord of this everlasting 
festival, eager to crowd his banquet with happy and 
rejoicing guests. From his omnipotent throne he prays 
men to hear and to believe. He forces not their obe- 
dience; he beseeches them to obey. It is the mystery 
of the parable that God is suppliant to his creatures. 
He who agonized beneath created hands still in the 
perpetuated spirit of that miraculous love, as it were, 
protracts his own humiliation, and beseeches the beings 
he has made to make him happy by making themselves 
blessed. 

He could compel, but he will not, for he understands 
his own glory. It is his highest glory to conciliate 
Divine Omnipotence with the unimpaired freedom of 
man, that " his people " should be " willing in the day 
of his power." The orbs of heaven, " the moon and 
the stars which he hath ordained," revolve in obedience 
to a command they know not. But he would be obeyed 
by the nobler attractions of the heart, the willing ser- 
vice, in which love is the all-sufficing law that preserves 
the spirits of his blessed ones revolving in changeless 
harmony around the divine centre of their regenerate 
life. e 

At all seasons and in all forms goes forth the inces- 
sant proclamation of a God who still waiteth to be gra- 
cious, the invitation of the ever-merciful King to the 
whole multitude of his Bubjects. In sacraments he 
solemnly delivers it, in exhortations he renews and 



THE ROYAL MARRIAGE-FEAST. 225 

unfolds it, and in all the dispensations of his high 
providence, by blessings and by chastisements, by press- 
ing contrasts, he emphatically enforces its need. 

It is seldom that invitations to a royal feast are 
rejected, but, alas ! the Jews rejected the invitation of 
the gospel : " they made light of it." This implies 
more than when it was previously said, "they would 
not come." They were not now, as then, simply in- 
different; they were scorners. The heart turns itself 
away from the gospel with the manifestation of a 
stronger dislike if it has been repeatedly treated with 
the offer of salvation in vain. The representation that 
these scornful guests "went their ways, one to his farm, 
another to his merchandise," is very significant and 
suggestive. The first went to his estate : he was a 
landholder, who went to enjoy what he had possessed 
by inheritance. The second went to his merchandise : 
he was a merchant, who went to add to his capital and 
gain what he had not yet reached. 

These two are, in fact, the two great divisions of the 
men of this world — those that have and are full ; those 
that have not, but hope and toil to have. The one is 
full, and feels not his need of a feast which has no at- 
tract ion for his carnal and sensual appetite. The other 
is empty, but fancies that the supply must come from 
the broken cisterns of earth. On these grounds they 
are absorbed in the world; they cannot appreciate the 
gospel ; they make light of the invitation, and perish 
ignorant of it. 

They went their ways to the ordinary avocations of 
life. " The excessive j devotion to business," it has well 
been -aiil, " which occupies some men, and leaves not 
a shred either of their hearts or lives for Christ, may 



226 the PARABLES OF JESUS. 

be in many cases not a primary affection, but the sec- 
ondary result of another and deeper passion. When 
( lirist has often knocked at the door, and the inhab- 
iting soul within has often refused to open, there is no 
longer peace in the dwelling which has been barred 
against its Lord. He who has rejected the merciful 
offers of a merciful (rod does not afterward sit at ease ; 
every sound that in moments of solitude falls upon his 
ear seems the footstep of an angry God returning to in- 
flict deserved punishment, When one has distinctly 
heard the Saviour's call, and deliberately refused to 
comply with it, he thenceforth experiences a craving for 
company and employment. He cannot endure silence. 
or solitude. When he stands still he seems to hear the 
throbbings of his own conscience, terrible as the ticking 
of the clock in the chamber of death. To be alone is 
unendurable, because it is to be with God. To escape 
from this fiery furnace he hastens to plough in his 
field or sell in his shop. In such a case the worldli- 
ness, even when it runs to the greatest excess, is not the 
primary passion, but a secondary refuge— the trees of 
the garden among w hich the fallen would fain hide 
from the Lord God." 

Behind and beyond the two classes already noticed, who 
seem glued to the earth and utterly lost in its supposed 
enjoyments, there looms into view another class, who 
reject the invitation on totally different grounds. "And 
the remnant took his servants, and entreated them spite- 
fully, and slew them." The oppositions to the gospel 
are not merely natural; they are also devilish. There 
are other evils in man's heart besides the worldliness of 
it which are stirred up by the word of the truth. It 
wounds men's pride, it affronts their self-righteousness, 



THE ROYAL MARRIAGE-FEAST. 227 

and they visit on the bringers of it the hate they bear to 
itself. Three forms of outrage are enumerated here : 
they "took," or laid violent hands on "his servants;" 
they "entreated them spitefully;" and they "slew them." 
How this description was realized to the very letter, the 
Acts of the Apostles gives large testimony. Throughout 
that record of the early Church we read not only of the 
continued and general resistance of the Jews against the 
truth, their constant " contradicting and blaspheming," 
but of their determination to extirpate the very name 
of Christ from the earth. Stephen and James were only 
the first of a large "army of martyrs" who sealed with 
their blood the testimony they bore to Christ, being "en- 
treated spitefully and slain." 

The king's being " wroth, and sending forth his armies 
and destroying those murderers, and burning up their 
city," expresses God's indignation at the obstinate unbe- 
lief and cruel outrages of the Jews in opposing and mur- 
dering his servants, who came to bring the last dispensa- 
tion of his mercy to them, and his stirring up the Romans 
at length to make war against them. In the unerring 
righteousness of his providence he sent the armies of 
that people under Vespasian and Titus — which were in 
truth his armies, inasmuch as he employed them as the 
instruments of his vengeance — to besiege Jerusalem, 
destroy the city and slaughter an immense number of 
the Inhabitants. This issue had been foretold by Christ 
In fore I lis death, and the prediction was literally and 
awfully accomplished. 

Let it be well remembered that as hearers of the gospel 
have the same CJod still to deal with, so he will in like 
manner punish all the despisers of his well-beloved Son 
and all the implacable enemies of his faithful servants. 



228 THE PARABLES OF JESUS. 

He will one day execute a jus! vengeance on them and 
consume them with unquenchable fire. "How shall we 
escape if we neglect so great salvation?" "The Lord 
Jesus shall be revealed from heaven with his mighty 
. in flaming fire, taking vengeance on them that 
know not God, and that obey not the gospel of our Lord 
Jesus Christ, who shall be punished with everlasting 
destruction from the presence of the Lord, and from the 
glory of his power ; when he shall come to be glorified 
in his saints, and to be admired in all them that believe 
(because our testimony among you was believed) in that 
day." 

" Then said he to his servants, The wedding is ready, 
but they which were bidden were not worthy. Go ye 
therefore into the highways, and as many as ye shall find, 
bid to the marriage. So those servants went out into the 
highways, and gathered together all as many as they 
found, both bad and good ; and the wedding w^as fur- 
nished with guests." It may be thought, perhaps, at 
the first view, that our Lord has here introduced a cir- 
cumstance not very natural or probable. It may be im- 
agined that at a magnificent royal entertainment, if any 
of the guests happened to fail in their attendance a great 
king would never think of supplying their places by 
sending his servants into the highways to collect together 
all the travelers and strangers they could meet with, and 
make them sit down at the marriage-feast. But, strange 
as this may seem, there is something that approaches very 
near to it in the customs of the Eastern nations even in 
modern times; for a traveler of great credit and repu- 
tation, Dr. Pococke, informs us that an Arab prince will 
often dine in the street before his door, and call to all 
that pass, even t<> beggars, in the name of God, and they 



THE ROYAL MARRIAGE-FEAST. 229 

come and sit clown to table ; and when they have done 
they retire with the usual form of returning thanks. 
This part of the parable alludes to the calling in of the 
Gentiles to the privileges of the gospel after they had 
been rejected by the Jews. This was first done by Peter 
in the instance of Cornelius, and afterward extended to 
the Gentiles at large by him and the other apostles. In 
the gracious invitation no exceptions, no distinctions, 
were to be made. The servants gathered together all as 
many as they found, both bad and good — the manifestly 
wicked, whom all considered as reprobates, and those who 
had led an externally honorable life. Men of all char- 
acters and descriptions were to have the offers of mercy 
and salvation made to them, even the very worst of 
sinners. 

" And the wedding was furnished with guests." Al- 
though many had slighted the gracious designs of God, 
there was yet no want of such as with the greatest joy 
and readiness appropriated this grace, so that the table 
was filled. 

The parable, which thus far represents the replenish- 
ing of the visible Church with professing believers, now 
points out the vast difference that subsists between nom- 
inal and real believers. 

The king entered his feast-chamber to see the guests — 
that is, to give a hospitable and gracious welcome to such 
as had come duly attired. Among these, however, there 
w.h one who in a very essential point differed from the 
rest : " he had not on the wedding-gannentP He was not 
clothed in such a manner as the occasion required and 
custom prescribed ; he was in fact an intruder, disgraced 
the entertainment by his presence, and had no business 
there. 

211 



230 THE PARABLES OF JESUS. 

It may perhaps be objected that this man could not 
have made his appearance otherwise than he did; that 
he was called out of the highway into the feast; that he 
could not reasonably he expected to carry with him a 
wedding-garment on the road; and consequently that it 
would he unjust to blame him for what he had no power 
{<> prevent or remedy. But this objection may be easily 
removed by adverting to a circumstance which, though 
not mentioned in the parable, is clearly implied in it. 
In those times and countries at great entertainments the 
master of the feast would sometimes furnish his guests 
with apparel suited to the occasion. We must conclude 
that this was done on the present occasion. The man 
who came to the feast without a wedding-garment had 
been offered one. But this offer he seems to have reject- 
ed. He perhaps undervalued the honor conferred on 
him in being asked to the feast; he had low conceptions 
of the dignity and majesty of the king who had invited 
him ; so long as he obtained admission to the entertain- 
ment he cared little whether his appearance was such as 
in fact it ought to have been ; or perhaps he was too 
proud to be seen in clothes which did not belong to 
him ; or possibly he thought his own sufficiently good 
for the occasion, and it may be even better than those 
which were offered to him. It is not improbable that, 
while greatly inferior in quality and value, they might 
bear some little resemblance to them in form and color, 
for we do not find that his fellow-guests observed the 
difference between his garment and theirs. However, 
when the king came in to see the guests he instantly 
perceived the difference. His eye, glancing over the 
numerous visitors assembled, at once detected the of- 
fender and brought his offence to light. 



THE ROYAL MARRIAGE-FEAST. 231 

The spiritual side which is here represented it is not 
difficult to perceive. Numbers call themselves the dis- 
ciples of Christ, and outwardly embrace his religion. 
But, as Paul tells us was the case with the Jews, " they 
were not all Israel which are of Israel," so it is in the 
Christian Church : they are not all true Christians who 
profess to be so. Not all who appear desirous of shar- 
ing the feast have on the wedding-garment. The par- 
able, indeed, describes but one offender among all the 
company assembled. In this respect, however, we are 
not to consider it as intending to convey an exact rep- 
resentation of the truth. The reason why only one is 
mentioned in the parable may perhaps be this : not to 
denote that the characters of the kind described are few 
in number and rarely to be found, but to intimate that 
though they should be few they will not, on that account, 
escape detection. Though there should be only one pro- 
fessor in the whole Church of Christ who has not on a 
wedding-garment, yet that one will surely be discovered 
by the piercing eye of God, which penetrates through 
every covering and sees distinctly every heart. One 
thief in the whole camp of Israel was not concealed 
from God, nor was one righteous man in Sodom over- 
looked by him. Let no one think, then, that he shall 
escape detection because he may stand single in iniquity. 
As numbers cannot protect, so neither can they hide him. 
Be he the only one among all the guests that has not on 
;i wedding-garment, the Lord now surely marks him, and 
will eventually expose him. 

What, then, is the wedding-garment of which this man 
was destitute? It is the robe of Christ's righteousness, 
implying a state of reconciliation and acceptana — that 
stale, in short, in which the true believer is, as distill- 



232 THE PARABLES OF JESUS. 

guishcd from the nominal Christian. It was in this 
robe that all the Old Testament saints were attired, for 
the Lord Jesus alone was their righteousness and their 
strength ; and this was their song: "I will greatly 
rejoice in the Lord, my soul shall be joyful in my 
God, for he hath clothed me with the garments of 
salvation, he hath covered me with the robe of right- 
eousness, as a bridegroom decketh himself with orna- 
ments, and as a bride adorneth herself with jewels." 
Neither had the New Testament saints any other, as the 
apostle Paul declares with respect to himself and all gen- 
uine believers in his time : " What things soever Mere 
gain to me, those I counted loss for Christ; yea, doubt- 
less, and I count all things but loss for the excellency 
of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, that I may 
win him, and be found in him, not having mine own 
righteousness, which is of the law, but that which is 
through the faith of Christ — the righteousness which is 
of God by faith." This is indeed the fine linen, clean 
and white, which constitutes the righteousness of saints, 
and without which we are still in a state of condemna- 
tion and lying under the wrath and curse of God. 

It is not said of this man, be it observed, that he had 
no clothing upon him at all, but the simple fact asserted 
regarding him is that he had not on the wedding-gar- 
ment. And so those, and those only, who put on the 
Lord Jesus Christ by faith, who lay hold on his right- 
eousness and finished work, — they only have on the 
wedding - garment which God has provided. What- 
ever other righteousness we may have, or think we 
have, if we have not the righteousness of Immanuel, 
"above all and covering nil, the Lord will abhor and 
disown us for our iilthiness." 



THE ROYAL MARRIAGE-FEAST. 233 

" This man/' says Trench, " lacked righteousness, 
both in its root of faith and flower of charity. He 
had not, according to the pregnant image of Paul, here 
peculiarly appropriate, c put on Christ / in which put- 
ting on of Christ both faith and charity are included — 
faith as the power putting on, charity or holiness as the 
thing put on. By faith we recognize a righteousness 
out of and above us, and which is yet akin to us, and 
wherewith our spirits can be clothed ; which righteous- 
ness is in Christ, who is the Lord our Righteousness. 
And this righteousness, by the appropriative and as- 
similative power of faith, we also make ours ; we are 
clothed upon with it, so. that it becomes, according to 
that singularly expressive term, our habit. The right- 
eousness imputed has become also a righteousness in- 
fused, and is in us charity or holiness, or, more accurately 
still, constitutes the complex of all Christian graces as 
they abide in the man and show themselves in his life." 

Unsuspected by his companions at the feast, the un- 
worthy guest was doubtless promising to himself much 
enjoyment, when his hopes suddenly experienced the 
most bitter disappointment. He Avas awakened from 
his presumptuous security by a question of a kind and 
from a quarter which he did not expect. How, as one 
who had ventured, contrary to all rule and custom, to 
thrust himself into such an honorable position, must 
lie have been startled by the inquiry from such a source, 
" Friend, how earnest thou in hither not having a wed- 
ding-garment?" A follower of mine, how is it that 
thou hast thought to bring the defilements of the world, 
the " garment spotted with the flesh," into this home of 
holiness? A servant of mine, where is the livery of 
service? A soldier of mine, where is the uniform of 

20 * 



234 THE PARABLES OF JESUS. 

the mystical warfare? Called to be a king, a sharer 
of the very throne of Christ, where are thy royal 
robes ? 

Mark the peculiarities of .the investigation! It was 
public, before all the guests. So shall it be on the day 
of judgment, when hypocrites of every class will be 
summoned to account for their intrusion into gospel 
ordinances and for their usurpation of gospel privileges. 
Their guilt shall be exposed in the presence of an 
assembled world. The investigation was reasonable. 
It gave the man an opportunity to explain and account 
for his conduct. "How comest thou in hither?" So 
will it be at the last reckoning. A righteous God will 
thus interrogate every one who has received his grace 
in vain : " How earnest thou to sit down at my feasts, 
when thou knewest well that thy heart was wholly 
unhumbled and unsanctified ? How didst thou venture 
to sit as my people sit before me, when thy heart still 
swarmed and swelled with its lusts, when the world and 
its pursuits and profits engrossed thy thoughts and affec- 
tions? How couldest thou pretend to call thyself a 
Christian, when thou Avert secretly depending on thine 
own righteousness instead of on the righteousness which 
I had wrought out for thee ? How couldest thou dare to 
claim an interest in the privileges and happiness of my 
people, when in thine heart thou retainedst iniquity and 
secretly lovedst the wages of unrighteousness?" The in- 
vestigation was 'personal : "How earnest thou in hither?" 
Many a man says, " Well, if I am unfit to be a church- 
member, there are a great many others who are in 
the same condemnation." What is that to him? He 
should see to himself. When the king came in to see 
the guests he did not say to the guilty individual, "How 



THE ROYAL MARRIAGE-FEAST. 235 

came yonder persons here without the wedding-gar- 
ment ?" His dealings were personal with him alone : 
"How earnest thou in hither, not having a wedding- 
garment?" Professor, look to thyself, look to thy- 
self ! Cast out the beam from thine own eye, and then 
shalt thou see clearly to cast out the mote that is in 
thy brother's eye. The investigation was overwhelm- 
ing. The man was " speechless •" he had nothing to 
say in palliation or justification. In the presence of 
the king he stood mute, dumb and downcast, being 
convicted and condemned in his own conscience. He 
might have had on a wedding-garment if he had not 
willfully rejected it, for had not this been the case he 
would have had something to urge in his behalf. He 
might, and doubtless would if he could, have pleaded 
the impossibility of obtaining a suitable garment for 
the occasion. But he knew that such a plea would be 
of no avail. He knew that pride and obstinacy and 
a criminal disrespect for the king had been the secret 
causes of his not appearing in the dress required. 
Hence his mouth was stopped ; he stood self-condemned. 
So will it be with all who live in the Church of Christ, 
and yet live and die without a saving interest in him ; 
they will be speechless, they will not have one word to 
say for themselves in the judgment of the great day. 
They will not dare to address to the visible God those 
easy apologies for worldliness on which they were 
willing of old to venture their salvation. They will 
qoI <lare to avow to God in person those excuses for sin 
which arc themselves a worse sin than that which they 
arc brought to justify, for the sin may be of sudden 
passion, but the excuse is of deliberate corruption. 
A- ii was the king's word which struck the intruder 



236 THE PARABLES OF JESUS. 

speechless, so will it be the light of God shining around 
and shining in upon the sinner which will at the last 
day reveal to him all the hidden things of his heart. 
The vastness of the loss, the hopelessness of the doom, 
the infatuation of the delusion, — all will burst upon 
him, and, his heart withered within, he will be "speech- 
Less." 

Silent, silent he shall be when God shall thus appeal 
to him : " How earnest thou in hither, thus unprepared, 
thus spurning my majesty and caring not for fitness for 
my presence? True, thou wert by nature carnal and 
unholy, and by practice thou hadst corrupted and hard- 
ened thy heart ; but did I not offer to change and renew 
thy nature and to soften and purify thy heart? When 
didst thou ever earnestly pray to me to deliver thee 
from thy sins, and to put my fear within thee, and to 
sanctify thee wholly by my grace ? Didst thou foolishly 
suppose that I could be imposed upon by outward ap- 
pearances ? Didst thou wickedly imagine that I would 
not resent or punish the iniquity of those who draw 
near to me with their lips, while their hearts are far 
from me? Do not I search the heart? Do not I 
require truth in the inward parts ? Answer me now if 
thou art able, and offer some excuse for thy guilt." 
These searching questions the sinner will not be able 
to endure. He will be speechless; guilt, conscious 
guilt, will palsy his tongue. Detected, exposed and 
confounded, he will have nothing to say. 

" Then said the king to the servants, Bind him hand 
and foot, and take him away, and cast him into outer 
darkness; there shall be weeping and gnashing of 
teeth." The ministering attendants here, who are dif- 
fei'enl both in name and office from the servants who 






THE ROYAL MARRIAGE-FEAST. 237 

invited and brought in the guests, can be no other than 
the angels, who " shall gather out of his kingdom all 
things that offend, and them that do iniquity." "Bind 
him hand and foot" to show him that the night is come 
in which no man can work, that for him all oppor- 
tunity of doing better is gone by; as well as to show 
the helplessness to which in a moment every proud 
sinner against God is reduced — the hands by the aid of 
which resistance, the feet by whose help escape, might 
have been meditated, being alike deprived of all power 
and motion. "And take him away" — away from a 
palace to a prison, from a feast to wretchedness, from 
angels to devils, from heaven to hell. Take him away 
from the King " in whose presence is fullness of joy, 
and at whose right hand are pleasures for evermore ;" 
away from the King's Son, who has said, " Father, I 
will that they also whom thou hast given me be with 
me where I am, that they may behold my glory which 
thou hast given me;" away from the company of the 
redeemed, who "shall hunger no more, neither thirst 
any more; neither shall the sun light on them, nor 
any heat. For the Lamb who is in the midst of 
the throne shall feed them, and shall lead them unto 
living fountains of waters : and God shall wipe away 
all tears from their eyes." "And cast him into outer 
darkness." Of this and the remaining portion of the 
fearful sentence Mr. Spurgeon gives the following sol- 
emn explanation and application: "'Cast him,' fling 
him like a useless, worthless thing. That wretch has 
dared pollute my marriage-feast; cast him away, as 
men fling weeds over the garden-wall or shake off 
vipers into the fire. There is none in heaven or earth 
thoughl more despicable, more lit to be thrown away 



238 THE PARABLES OF JESUS. 

as rubbish and offal, than a man who had a Christian 
name, but had not the essentials of the Christian's 
nature. Cast him away. Where? 'Into outer dark- 
ness/ far from the banquet-hall where torches flame 
and lamps are bright; drive him out into the cold, 
chilly midnight air. He has once seen the light; it 
will be all the darker now for him when he is driven 
into the dark. There is no darkness so dark as the 
darkness of the man who once saw light. Cast him 
into the outer darkness. What will he do there ? We 
are not told what would be done to him — it was not 
needful ; we learn elsewhere as much as could be re- 
vealed to us — but we are told what he did, for ' there 
shall be weeping,' — not the gush of tears which gives 
relief, but the everlasting dropping of sealding tears 
which create fresh sorrow and enlarge their own source. 
The outcast shed no tears of regret but of sullen dis- 
appointment because he could not, after all, dishonor 
the king, and had even served to illustrate the royal 
justice and power, and so had brought glory to the 
king whom he hated in soul. Then came the ' gnash- 
ing of teeth,' caused by wrath and envy because he 
could do no more mischief. No sorrow is equal to that 
of a malicious spirit that, having attempted a daring 
deed of atrocious wickedness, has been defeated and has 
contributed to the triumph of the good and excellent. 
The misery of hell is not a misery which God arbi- 
trarily creates ; it is the necessary result of sin ; it is 
sin itself come to ripeness. Here you see the picture 
of the man who was insolent enough to come into the 
Church without being a Christian, and now for ever he 
gnashes his teeth against the glorious Majesty of heaven 
which it will never be in his power to injure, but which 



THE ROYAL MARRIAGE-FEAST. 239 

it will always be in his heart to hate ; and this will be 
his hell — that he hates God ; this his darkness — that he 
cannot see beauty in God; and this the outerness of 
the darkness — that he cannot enter into God's will. 
' Depart, ye cursed !' is only love repelling that which 
is not lovely; it is only justice giving to man what his 
fallen nature craved after. ' Get away from me ! Ye 
did not honor me ; when ye did come to me it was with 
your lips only. Go where your hearts were; depart 
from me, ye cursed !' Oh, may God grant that not one 
here may come under the lash of this terrible parable, 
but may we be found of the Lord in peace in the day 
of his appearing !" 

The proverbial saying, "For many are called, but 
few are chosen," which refers back to those who first 
rejected the invitation to the feast, as well as to the 
expulsion of the guest who had not on the wedding- 
garment, has here a slight difference of application from 
that which it has in Matt. xx. 16, where it seems to 
refer to the grades of dignity to which Christ appoints 
his followers. Here the scope of the parable gives it 
this sense : Many are invited to the blessings and privi- 
leges of the gospel feast, but comparatively few are real 
participants of the grace of God. This saying is a 
warning given by our compassionate Saviour not to 
" make light " of the call to the heavenly banquet, the 
marriage-supper of the Lamb. How important that 
this warning be heeded! We are sitting down at the 
gospel feast on earth, and perhaps bear the name of 
Christian. Oh, let us see that we have the wedding- 
garment! The King has not yet come in to see the 
guests, the great day of reckoning has not yet arrived. 
Yet lie dor- see ii- all continually. What robe does he 



240 THE r ARABLES OF JESUS. 

see od us? The while robe or the filthy garments? 
J lave you any doubt? Oh, set that doubt at rest. Go 
to the gracious Saviour, go while yet you may, go just 
as you are, and ask him to wash you clean and to clothe 
you in white. Pray for a new heart, for the gift of the 
Holy Spirit. Ask for all that is meant by the wed- 
ding-garment. Ask in faith. The wedding-garment 
of old was free ; the wedding-garment of the soul is free 
too. " Ask, and it shall be given you." 



*THE*TEN*VMM,-* 



'Lift up your heads, ye everlasting gates! 
The King of glory comes I He eomes to clothe 
This mortal in the imperishable garb 
Of immortality! Hear it, ye dead! 
Hear the glad tidings, and -with trenibling hope 
Expect that day when, at the archangel's trump, 
From the long sleep of many thousand years 
Ye shall awake — awake to sleep no more. 
Hear it, O living man! ere greedy death 
Consigns thee to the prison of the tomb — 
Hear and be wise; seek the Redeemer's throne; 
On bending knees implore his healing grace, 
Chant forth his praise and venerate his Name." 
21 

241 



/ Then shall the kingdom of heaven be likened unto ten virgins, 

2 which took their lamps, and went forth to meet the bridegroom. And 

3 five of them were wise, and five were foolish. They that were fool- 

4 ish took their lamps, and took no oil with them: But the wise took 

5 oil in their vessels with their lamps. While the bridegroom tamed, 

6 they all slumbered and slept. And at midnight there was a cry made, 

7 Behold, the bridegroom cometh : go ye out to meet him. Then all those 
S virgins arose, and trimmed their lamps. And the foolish said unto 
a the wise, Give us of your oil; for our lamps are gone out. But the 

wise answered, saying, Not so ; lest there be not enough for us and 

you : but go ye rather to them that sell, and buy for yourselves. 

jo 'And while they went to buy, the bridegroom came; and they that 

were ready went in with him to the marriage : and the door was 

11 shut. Afterward came also the other virgins, saying, Lord, Lord, 

12 open to us. But he answered and said, Verily L say unto you, L 

ij know you not. Watch therefore, for ye know neither the day nor 

the hour wherein the Son of ?nan cometh. 

Matt. xxv. 1-13. 

242 






THE TEN VIRGINS. 



HHHE simple diction, the attractive similitude and 
-*- the solemn moral of this parable invest it with 
peculiar interest. 

The circumstances detailed in it form an exact and 
literal representation of the customs of the East on such 
jovous occasions. On the appointed day it is usual for 
the bridegroom to repair, late in the evening, accom- 
panied by a few chosen friends, to the residence of his 
bride, and, on notice being given of their appearance, 
the female attendants of the bride go forth with lamps 
in their hands to conduct him to the home of the bride. 
On their return from the house of the bride's father, 
while she is carried in a palanquin, or walks under a 
canopy borne by some of her female friends or attend- 
ants, each with a lamp in her hand, the bridegroom 
and his friends go before, holding a great profusion of 
torches which spread a glare all along the route of the 
procession, which purposely winds through the prin- 
cipal streets and places on the way, and halts every 
now and then to hear some lively air from the musi- 
cian- or to witness some feats of dexterity from the 
dancing-girls accompanying the nuptial party. It is 
generally midnight before the bridegroom makes his 
appearance at the house where the festivities are to he 

243 






244 THE PARABLES OF JESUS. 

celebrated. < )n the announcement of His approach a 
number of female friends and neighbors, who have 
been waiting with lighted torches, uncertain of the 

time of his arrival,, sally forth to congratulate 
him and join the profession, alter which they are en- 
titled to enter as guests to the wedding-supper. For 
this latter party of females it is absolutely necessary to 
keep constantly on the watch, as the procession com- 
mences its return sometimes almost immediately on the 
arrival of the bridegroom to take away his bride. As 
none would presume to enter the train without bring- 
ing the indispensable accompaniment of a lighted torch, 
they require to supply themselves with materials for 
keeping up the flame until the joyous party arrive at 
the house. 

The parable is designed to carry on the subject with 
which the preceding chapter concludes — -namely, that of 
the last solemn day of retribution ; and the object of it 
is to call our attention to that great event, and to warn 
US of the necessity of being always prepared for it. 

"Then" at that time, "shall the kingdom of heaven" 
the gospel dispensation in its final results, "be likened 
unto ten virgins, which took their lamps and went forth to 
meet the bridegroom." As the night closes in upon this 
dispensation, then shall those things represented in the 
parable take place. The future coming of Jesus, pre- 
viously announced, is hen' .set forth in lively colors as 
to its certainty, though it should be longer delayed than 
people would readily believe, especially such as thought 
he was to come in Lis glory immediately after the de- 
struction of Jerusalem ; and it is asserted that when 
this advent takes place different fates shall befall the 
watchful and the faithless. 



THE TEN VIRGINS. 245 

The number of the virgins is stated to be ten, simply 
because that number was regarded as a company. It 
was a law in the ancient Mishnas and Gemaras and 
regulations of the Jews, that wherever there were ten 
Jews, there a synagogue should be built. We think no 
symbolic character should be attributed to the virgins, 
as such, in the interpretation of the parable ; it is when 
they take their lamps and go forth to meet the bride- 
groom that they first acquire a spiritual significance. 
The whole group represents that portion of any com- 
munity who profess to be the disciples of Christ. The 
structure of the parable required virgins in this place, 
in order that the picture might be true to nature ; in 
the customs, apparently, of all times and countries this 
position at a marriage-feast is assigned to young un- 
married women. Those who see in the special con- 
dition of these watchers a symbol of the purity which 
becomes the followers of Christ seem to overlook the 
fact that the ten — symbols of the true and the false — 
were in respect to this condition all equal. 

The "bridegroom" represents our Lord Jesus Christ, 
the divine Head and loving Husband of that Church 
which is his bride, "the Lamb's wife" — the union 
which faith forms between him and his people being 
represented as a marriage. "It is one of love, for 
though a wealthy marriage to the bride, it is on her 
part, as well as on his, one of endearment. ' We love 
him because he first loved us;' 'Thy people shall be 
willing in the day of thy power.' It is one which 
grim Death shall never dissolve and leave Christ's 
< hiiivh a mourning widow. It is one which holy 
prophets sung and long ages prepared for. It is one 
which the Son, though stooping to the lowliest object, 

21 



246 THE PARABLES OF .IKS US. 

entered into with bis Father's full consent. It is one 
in which J leaven took a part and angels were weddings- 
guests, their harps lending the music and their wings 

the light. It is one over which all the host- of 
heaven rejoiced in the fullness of generous love. 'I 
heard/ says John, 'as it Mere the yoiee of a great mul- 
titude, and as the voice of many waters, and a- the 
voice of many thunderings, saying, Alleluia ! for the 
Lord God omnipotent reigneth. Let us be glad and 
rejoice, and give honor to him, for the marriage of tlic 
Lamb is come, and his wife hath made herself ready.' " 

The virgins who knew of the coming of the bride- 
groom went forth to meet him. It is the duty of Chris- 
tians to wait for Christ. It is delightful that our Lord 
here makes choice of an image which raise.- such joyous 
expectations, sufficient to divest of their terror all the 
frightful circumstances with which his coming is con- 
nected. The believers of the old covenant looked for 
the coming of Messiah ; the believers who live under 
the new covenant look for his second coming. This 
expectation is a powerful means in the hands of God 
for raising and sanctifying the heart; it springs out 
of faith iu the promises of the Lord, and is at once 
the proof and nourishment of love to him. We look 
for him because we love him, and could not love him 
if we were not looking for him ; we look for him be- 
cause we have already experienced love to him when 
absent; and this expectancy toward Christ's coming, 
and preparation for it, are the leading purpose and 
main concern of all true ( 'hristians. 

It will be observed that there was a common likeness 
between all the virgins. All were professed friends of 
the bridegr DJ all were dressed in the garments 



THE TEN VIRGINS. 247 

usually worn at such festivals ; all had taken their 
lamps and kindled them; all had occupied the place 
assigned to them; and all, 'while the bridegroom 
tarried and they waited for his coming, slumbered and 
slept. So that, whatever real differences there were 
between them, there were no obvious marks of distinc- 
tion. Though five were wise and five were foolish, 
they were not distinguished till the coming of the 
bridegroom. What, then, are we to understand by 
this ? We have here a representation of the professing 
Church, among whose members there is a common 
reputation and resemblance as among men, though a 
hidden and radical difference as before God. Look at 
the visible Church. Are not all its members professedly 
the friends of Christ ? Have they not all been baptized 
in the same Name ? Do they not all exhibit the same 
general deportment '? They all call Jesus Lord. They 
observe his Sabbaths, they assemble at his ordinances, 
they meet together in his Name, they profess to wait 
for his coming from heaven. Even in this they all 
agnc There is not a man who receives the Christian 
faith who does not believe that Christ, the Saviour of 
men, will come a second time to judge the world. 
When we approach the Lord's table it is that we may 
show the Lord's death till he come. Here, then, is the 
agreement. 

lint there was also a most serious and important 
distinction. "Five of them were wise, and Jive were 
foolish." We have ;m analogous use of these words 
in the reference to the (wo men— the wise man that 
built his house' upon the rock, and the foolish man that 
built his house upon the sand. They are the wise who 
seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, 



248 THE PARABLES OF JESUS. 

that all other things may be added ; and they are the 
foolish who seek other things, and miss both them and 
the kingdom of God, and Ins righteousness too. Yet 
this is not a distinction of the head, but a distinction 
of the heart; it is not that the one was deficient in 
intellect, and the other abounded in it, but that the one 
had a deficiency which was moral and spiritual, and 
the other an excellency which was spiritual, permanent 
and saving. And is it thus that the visible Church is 
constituted ? Docs the number of believers and of mere 
formalists thus meet in equality? It comes not within 
the legitimate range of this parable to determine this 
point, and to the curious inquiry, " Are there few that be 
saved?" we reply in the energetic language of Christ, 
" Strive to enter in at the strait gate, for many, I say 
unto you, will seek to enter in, and shall not be able." 

But whence arose the marked distinction between the 
foolish and the wise virgins ? " They that were foolish 
took their lamps, and took no oil with them, but the wise 
took oil in their vessels with their lamps" 

To have a form of godliness, but to deny its power, 
to have a name to live, but to be spiritually dead, to 
appear beautiful outwardly as whited sepulchres, but 
within to be full of dead men's bones and of all unelean- 
ness, — this is the character ascribed in the revealed word 
to the merely nominal Christian. His religion consists 
in a mere external profession. Whatever may command 
the praise of his fellow-mortals forms the object of his 
zealous pursuit, while to the Christian's hidden life, to 
the unseen exercises of communion with God and his 
own soul, to secret prayer, to a ceaseless struggle with 
his spiritual foes, to every duty of which God and his 
own soul are alone cognizant, he is a stranger. 



THE TEN VIRGINS. 249 

Whence arises this fearful delusion, this resting in 
the form instead of the reality? It arises from the 
want of the essential qualities that constitute the gen- 
uine Christian ; it arises from the want of grace in the 
heart as the principle of universal devotedness to the 
divine will. The nominal Christian knows nothing of 
that deep conviction of the evil of sin and of the deceit- 
fulness of the heart, that precedes and accompanies true 
conversion. He has experienced no renewal by the 
poM 7 er of the Divine Spirit. To that living faith in 
Christ which directs and animates cordial obedience he 
is an entire stranger. He has received no supplies of 
spiritual strength out of the freeness that is in Christ, 
no illumination from the Fountain of light ; and " the 
light that is in him is only darkness." 

Not so the real Christian. "The wise took oil in their 
vessels with their lamps." A suitable Christian pro- 
fession is both a pleasing and presumptive evidence of 
internal holiness, but with the true believer the form is 
esteemed as nothing in comparison with the substance. 
Religion is a personal matter between his soul and God. 
It is the heart which is the source of natural defilement, 
and until the fountain be purified the streams must par- 
take of the original impurity from which they take 
their rise. The believer's heart, by the power of di- 
vine grace, has undergone a decided and saving change. 
Though "at one time darkness, he has become light in 
the Lord." His mind, naturally at "enmity against 
God," has been enlightened by the knowledge of Christ, 
and a new direction has been given to the current of his 
affections and desires. 11(3 has been made wise unto 
salvation, and under the conviction of the coming of his 
Lord, like the wise virgins, "he lakes nil in bis vessel 



250 THE PARABLES OF JESUS. 

-with his lamp;" lest he should be taken by surprise and 
left in darkness. Yes! the believer is "complete in 
Christ," and draws every needful supply out of his 
fullness. While he distrusts Jiimself, he trusts in "the 
Lord his righteousness." He takes to himself the 
whole armor of God, and is girt with the sword of the 
Spirit. Under the guidance and protection of a divine 
power he goes forth to wrestle with those "enemies that 
war against the sold." 

" While tJie bridegroom tarried, they all slumbered and 
slq>t" Whilst all are represented as having slumbered 
and slept, the wise, it will be observed, kept their lamps 
burning, though certainly not as brightly as they would 
have done had they been properly awake to attend to 
them. " It seems to be impossible," says Drummond, 
" to gather anything else from this very positive state- 
ment than that the whole professing Church of Christ 
will be found at last in the state here set forth. The 
kingdom of heaven will then be found like the ten 
virgins, who ' all slumbered and slept.' Of course the 
sleep here spoken of is a widely different thing in the 
several cases of the Avise and the foolish — the foolish 
ones sleeping in their carnal security, quite satisfied with 
the profession they make, deceiving themselves and 
1 at ease in Zion.' The wise are sleeping, overcome by 
their lengthened watching and because of the weakness 
of their faith. They are sleeping as the apostles did in 
the garden, 'for sorrow,' weighed down by the days of 
darkness and of gloom which have settled on the Church. 
They an; sleeping, because their faith has not arisen pro- 
portionately to their Lord's demand that ' they ought 
always to pray and not to faint' — because when he re- 
turns he will not find that it has a strength at all com- 



THE TEN VIRGINS. 251 

niensurate with his promises, or that its living energy 
has gone on increasing during the period when he ' bears 
long with them ' and appears to delay his coming." 

According to Calvin, the sleep that oppressed the 
waiting virgins intimates the nece&sity that lies on all 
of going down into the ordinary affairs of life. Disci- 
ples in the body cannot be occupied always and only 
with the expectation of their Lord's appearing. Sleep 
and food, family and business, make demands on them 
as well as on others — demands which they cannot and 
should not resist. If the coming of the Bridegroom be 
delayed till midnight, the virgins must slumber. This 
is not a special weakness of individuals ; it is the com- 
mon necessity of nature. ■ So, when life is lengthened 
in the body, we must attend to the affairs of this world. 

" The coming of the Son of man," says an eminent 
divine, "may surprise one at his farm and another at 
his merchandise, but it does not follow on that account 
that it will surprise them vavprepdred. Now and then 
in the history of the Church a Christian has been found 
dead in his closet and on his knees. A few years ago, 
in a rural district of Scotland, an elder who was lead- 
ing the devotions of a district prayer-meeting suddenly 
ceased to speak — ceased in the middle of a sentence, in 
the middle of a prayer. The worshipers opened their 
eyes, and observed that his head and breast leant heav- 
ily on the desk; they approached and found him dead. 
A i the moment when the Bridegroom came this watcher 
was wide awake, standing on tiptoe and straining for- 
ward to catch the first glimpse of the glory that should 
herald bis approach. When the Bridegroom came this 
watcher went out to meet him, and went in with him 
to the feast: safe and happy he, but not he only! 



252 THE PARABLES OF JESUS. 

"On the other side, we hear sometimes of a merchant 
who died in his counting-house, his ledger, not theBibtej 
the last book he had read ; of a miner killed in an in- 
stant by an explosion while he was picking coals in the 

bowels of the earth; of a soldier falling- on a battle-field 
while his right hand raised the sword to strike a foe : 
these may all seem to have been slumbering and off 
guard when the Bridegroom came. What of them? 
were they all shut out? Kay, verily. Some of them 
were shut out, and some were let in, according as they 
were ready or not ready when awaked by the coming of 
their Lord. The child of God who is surprised amid 
the toils of his daily calling goes as safely into rest as 
his brother of the same family who is summoned in the 
very act of prayer. The five wise virgins were stretched 
on the ground asleep when the cry arose, 'Behold the 
bridegroom cometli !' and yet there was no surprise. 
Although they were only awakened by his coming, they 
were ready to meet him when he came, and to enter with 
him into his rest." 

Before Christ left the world he warned his disciples 
of his second coming, but he fixed no time for it. When 
he docs come he shall sit on the throne of his glory, and 
before him shall be gathered all nations. But even in 
this respect the Bridegroom has tarried beyond the ex- 
pectation of the people of God in all ages. This is evi- 
dent even from some passages in the writings of the 
apostles. Some of the first Christians believed in the 
speedy approach of the day of judgment. That knowl- 
edge which the Father has reserved to himself, and which 
was not even committed to the Son, was not possessed 
by the apostles. " Behold," he said — "behold I come 
quickly!" and they looked for an advent speedy accord- 



THE TEN VIRGINS. 253 

ing to their conceptions of speed. And the infidel 
scorners took advantage of what appeared to them to be 
delay. " Where," said they — " where is the promise of 
his coming?" But many ages rolled away, and still the 
Bridegroom tarried ; and still does he delay his coming, 
and ages may again roll away before he appears. Come, 
however, he will. He is not slack concerning his promise, 
but we are told that " one day is with the Lord as a thou- 
sand years, and a thousand years as one day." The 
longest periods can make no alterations in his counsels 
and designs, nor is the difference of time of any conse- 
quence to Him who fills the vast round of eternity — to 
whom a space of time is but a point, a nothing. 

" But at midnight there was a cry made, Behold, the 
bridegroom cometh ; go ye out to meet Mm." This cry we 
may suppose to have been made either by a part of the 
retinue going before, or by the applauding multitude 
who even till that late hour had been waiting to see the 
passage of the procession through the streets. But the 
spiritual signification of the cry at midnight is, in all 
probability, to be found in "the voice of the archangel 
and the trump of God," which shall be heard when the 
Lord shall descend from heaven with a shout. This cry 
is -aid to have been"a£ midnight" because that is the 
time when commonly deep sleep falls upon men, and 
because thus the unexpectedness of Christ's coming, of 
the day of the Lord which "cometh as a thief in the 
night/' is in a lively manner set forth. 

Death, which is a coming of the Bridegroom to the 
individual soul, though it seem to tarry, yet will surely 
come, and will not tarry long. Dust we are, and unto 
dustwe musl all return. And it generally comes al mid- 
night; that is, al a time when it is leas! expected. So it 



254 THE PARABLES OF JESUS. 

came to the rich man mentioned in the Gospel. While 
he foolishly thought to satisfy his soul with earthly 
goods, and promised himself months and years to come 
of ease and pleasure, he had not another night to live. 

For God said to him, "Thou fool ! this night shall thy 
soul be required of thee." So it fares with many. Death 
makes his appearance when they think of nothing less. 
" In such an hour as they think not the Son of man 
cometh" and demands their souls of them. 

Behold, the Bridegroom cometh! Death cometh! 
Such rousing cries in the Church of God and in the lives 
of individuals are often found in great outward changes, 
national judgments, desolations, diseases, extreme dangers, 
extraordinary deliverances and other solemn occurrences, 
through means of which zealous and godly Christians 
and nominal professors of faith are constrained to think 
of the coming of the Son of man as near at hand. Es- 
pecially is such a cry made when our friends, neighbors 
or relations are cut down around us. 

" For us they sicken, and for us they die." 

God intends their death as a warning to us, that we may 
be wise by their folly and may learn experience by what 
they suffer — that, conscious of our frailty and mortality, 
we may not, whatever they have done, neglect to " pre- 
pare to meet our God." Do we regard this event with 
a desire to realize the result it is designed and adapted to 
secure? 

"When by the bed of languishment we sit, 
And o'er our dying friends in anguish hang, 
Wipe the cold dew or stay the sinking head, 
Number their moments, and in every clock 
Start at the voice of an eternity, 



THE TEN VIRGINS. 255 

See the dim lamp of life just feebly lift 
An agonizing beam, at us to gaze, 
Then sink again, and quiver into death, — 
How read we such sad scenes ?" 

" Then all those virgins arose, and trimmed their 
lamps. And the foolish said unto the wise, Give us of 
your oil, for our lamps are gone out." Both the wise 
and the foolish virgins had recourse to that which 
was fitted to give light and to conduct them safely to 
the home of the bridegroom. The foolish had re- 
course to their lamps, but discovered that they were 
empty ; the wise had recourse to theirs, and found that, 
though they burned but dimly, in their vessels was oil 
to recruit and restore them. The wise virgins found 
that they had life and a fountain of it ; the foolish vir- 
gins discovered that their religion was but an outward 
mask; that their godliness was but the form without the 
power ; that their Christianity was but a name, whilst 
they themselves were dead in trespasses and in sius. 
"What an awful discovery to make at that hour ! When 
the darkness shall be densest how terrible to find that 
we have no light ! — when our need shall be sorest, to 
feel that we have nothing to sustain and to comfort us ! 
— when a Saviour's blood shall be felt to be the only 
element that can give peace and pardon and happiness, 
to find that we have trusted to our own works, or to our 
own forms, or to our own ceremonies ! 

" But the wise answered, saying, Not so, lest there be 
not enough for us and you ; but go ye rather to them that 
.sr//, and />">/ for yourselves." Plow striking the refusal 
of the wise virgins to the foolish ! It just means that 
m> man has more grace than lie needs himself — that 
while there is an unfailing Fountain from whence alone 



56 



THE PARABLES OF JESUS. 



I 



every one can obtain what he requires, each as he re- 
ceives has nothing to spare for another. He may direct 
to the source which lias supplied himself, but he can- 
not ]>art with any of his own. He has nothing ap- 
proaching to supererogation; he has not "enough" 
for himself and another. All that the wise virgins 
could do in this emergency was to counsel, as they did, 
the foolish to go to those who sold oil and buy for 
themselves. So, all that God's people can do for those 
who will apply to them for help as the last moment 
approaches, and the Bridegroom is close at hand, will 
be to go and seek for what they need where alone it 
can be found. 

"And while they went to buy, the bridegroom came, 
and they that were ready went in with him to the mar- 
riage" Blessed consummation ! Believers are now be- 
trothed to Christ, but at his advent their espousals will 
be perfected with him, and he will take them to his 
home. Here they are one with him, and they feel at 
times that they are so, but even in these happy seasons 
they feel also that they might be nearer to him ; and 
there are other seasons when they are ready to think 
themselves utterly separated from him. They cannot 
see him, they cannot find him. "Oh, that I knew 
where I might find him !" they say. " Oh, the hope 
of Israel!" they cry, "the Saviour thereof in time 
of trouble! why shouldcst thou be as a stranger in the 
land, and as a wayfaring man that turneth aside to 
tarry for a night?" They feel that while they are at 
home in the body they are generally in a state of dis- 
fcance from Him whom their souls most love. But 
when they go in to the marriage-supper of the Lamb 
how different will their experience be! When they 



THE TEN VIRGINS. 257 

shall meet their Saviour, not as they met him on earth 
at his table and in his ordinances, but personally and 
in all his glory; when with looks of complacency and 
delight he shall graciously invite them as the objects 
of his love, whom he acquits and confesses before an 
assembled world, to share his unsearchable riches and 
exalted dignity ; and when there is " heard as it were 
the voice of a great multitude, and as the voice of many 
waters, and as the voice of mighty thunderings, saying, 
Alleluia : for the Lord God omnipotent reigneth. Let 
us be glad and rejoice, and give honor to him : for the 
marriage of the Lamb is come, and his wife hath made 
herself ready. And to her was granted that she should 
be arrayed in fine linen, clean and white : for the fine 
linen is the righteousness of the saints ;" and when he 
as the Bridegroom grasps them with the hand of affec- 
tion, leads them within the gates to the celestial city, 
conducts them to his royal palace, and seats them with 
him at his princely table, to banquet on his rich dain- 
ties, drink the cup of his purest delights and enjoy the 
comfort of his infinite and unchangeable love, as won- 
dering angels look on them all pure and glorious before 
his throne, — oh, then how different will their experience 
be from what it now is! how will their souls swell with 
gratitude and overflow with joy ! and how will songs 
of rapture burst from their lips to Him who loved them 
and gave himself for them ! For that day are reserved 
ecstasies which no human heart has ever conceived — 
ecstasies arising from a conscious deliverance from all 
doubts and fears and pains and sins and sorrows, and 
from the full beamings of a Saviour's countenance 
which arc never to he eclipsed or even dimmed. 

Not so those who are not united to .Jesus by a living 
22* 



258 THE PARABLES OF JESUS. 

faith. Dismal beyond conception must have been the 
feelings of the foolish virgins when, on their return 
from their errand to purchase oil, they found them- 
selves excluded from the feast. And still more dismal, 
if possible, must have been their feelings when, to their 
earnest application for admittance, they received the re- 
ply, "Verily, I say unto you, I know you not." They 
could doubtless hear the sound of " joy and rejoicing" 
within, and they had long and confidently cherished the 
expectation of being partakers of it. They remembered 
too that that door had been open once, and stood open 
long, and that they had been urged to enter it without 
delay. Terrible reverse ! " The door was shut." The 
possibility of entrance to the light, joy, honor and abun- 
dance of the feast, which existed just before, Mas now gone 
— for ever gone ! Hope gave way to darkness and de- 
spair. They were too late — too late ! 

"Watch therefore." These words and those which fol- 
low in the verse are Christ's, not the bridegroom's. They 
form the key to the parable. The watchfulness here in- 
culcated is that state of mind in which one is who is 
truly conscious to himself of his actual condition — of 
the aim and tendency of his life, of his relation to the 
things of this world and the great realities of the next, 
and by whom everything is so applied and used as to lie 
of service to him for his eternal salvation. 

"For ye know neither the day nor the hour wherem the 
Son of man cometh." The ground of the watchfulness 
enjoined is our ignorance of the exact time for the man- 
ifestation of ( 'lii'ist ; which uncertainty true believers im- 
prove t<> their salvation. The wisdom which the world 
calls folly consists mainly, according to this parable, in 
thinking of the approaching future — of death, judgment 



THE TEN VIRGINS. 259 

and retribution ; and what the world calls wisdom, a mere 
living for the present, is folly in the eyes of the Lord. 
We must watch over all that is in us and what is with- 
out us, working upon us. We must watch over the world 
around us, over our own hearts, over those powers of 
darkness with which, according to the word of God, we 
have to contend. Iu every age, in every life, there are 
periods which more or less resemble the coming of Christ 
— upon which as much depends for the individual, which 
are just as decisive of his future condition, in which he 
stands just as much in need of faith and love, of watch- 
fulness and prudence. 

" In various ways it belongs," observes an eloquent 
divine, "if I may say so, to the chapter of accidents 
whether our death may not be as sudden and unex- 
pected as the coming of the Bridegroom here, or as the 
second advent in which our Lord shall appear with the 
surprise of a thief in the night. "What may happen any 
day it is certainly wise to be prepared for every day. So 
men' make their wills, but so, alas ! they do not mind 
their souls! This ye should have done, but not have 
left the other undone. There is no lawyer but, if you 
have any property to dispose of, and would not have 
your death the signal for quarrels and lawsuits and 
heart-burnings, will advise you to make a settlement, 
nor delay one day to do so. Oh, how much more need 
to make your peace with God, and prepare your eternal 
rather than your temporal affairs for death — to make it 
nil ii p with Him who is willing to forgive all, and is 
now tarrying on the road to give you time to get oil and 
go forth with joy to the cry, ' Behold, the Bridegroom 
oometh! 5 Sick Christ this day — this hour — this mo- 
ment. On its decision may hang your irrevocable, fix- 



260 THE PARABLES OF JESUS. 

ed, eternal destiny. There is hope for you now; to-mor- 
row there may be nunc." 

"Heir <if eternal life, reflect, O man, 
What to thyself tlmii owest, whose endless doom 
Hangs on this squandered moment or the next." 



*THE*TALENTg,* 



'In a napkin smooth and. white, 
Hidden from all mortal sight, 
My one talent lies to-night — 

'Mine to hoard, or mine to use; 
Mine to keep, or mine to lose, 
May I not do what I choose? 

'Ah! the gift was only lent, 
"With the Giver's own intent 
That it should be wisely spent; 

'And I know he will demand 
Every farthing at my hand 
When I in his presence stand. 

'What will be my grief and shame 
When I hear my humble name, 
And cannot repay his claim! 

: One poor talent — nothing more! 
All the years that have gone o'er 
Have not added to the store. 

: Some will double what they hold, 
Others add to it tenfold, 
And pay back the shining gold. 

: Would that I had toiled like them! 
All my sloth I now condemn; 
Guilty fears my soul o'erwhelm. 

; Lord, oh teach me what to do ! 
Make me faithful, make me true, 
And the sacred trust renew. 

Help me, ere too late it be, 
Something yet to do for thee— 

who hast done all for me!" 



14 For the kingdom of heaven is as a man traveling into a far country, 

jj who called his (nun servants, and delivered unto them his goods. And 

unto one he gave five talents, to another two, and to another one ; to 

every man according to his several ability ; and straightway took his 

lb journey. Then he that had received the five talents 'cent and traded 

jj with the same, and made them other jive talents. Atid likewise he 

iS that had received two, he also gained other two. But he that had 

received one went and digged in the earth, and hid his lord's money. 

iq After a long time the lord of those servants comet h, and reckoneth 

20 with them. And so he that had received five talents came and brought 
other five talents, saying, Lord, thou deliveredsl unto me five talents : 

21 behold, I have gained beside them five talents more. His lord said 
unto him, Well done, thou good and faithful servant: thou hast been 
faithful over a few things, I will make thee ruler over many things : 

22 enter thou into the joy of thy lord. He also that had received two 
talents came and said, Lord, thou deliveredsl unto me t'wo talents : 

23 behold, I have gained two other talents beside them. Llis lord said 
unto him, Well done, good and faithful servant ; thou hast been faith- 
ful over afe-w things, I will make thee ruler over many things : enter 

24 thou into the joy of thy lord. Then he which had received the one 
talent ca?ne and said, Lord, L knew thee that thou art an hard man, 
reaping where thou hast not sown, and gathering where thou hast not 

25 strawed : And L was afraid, and 'went and hid thy talent in the 
2b earth : to, there thou hast that is thine. His lord anstvered and said 

unto him, Thou wicked and slothful servant, thou knewest that L reap 

2j where I sowed not, and gather -where L have not strawed; Thou 

oughtest therefore to have put my money to the exchangers, and then 

28 at my coming 1 should have received mine own -with usury. Take 
therefore the talent from him, and give it unto him which hath ten 

29 talents. For unto every one that hath shall be given, and he shall 
have abundance: but from him that hath not shall betaken a~vay 

jo even that -which he hath. And cast ye the unprofitable servant into 
outer darkness : there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth. 

Matt. xxv. 14-30. 
262 



THE TALENTS. 



r I ^HE relation of this parable to the one immediately 
-*- preceding is obvious. If the first portrays in 
more general terms the necessary readiness of the 
Christian for the arrival of his Lord, the latter, as 
having this event more immediately in prospect, speaks 
in particular of the fidelity that is required. This 
both have in common : that they refer to the same 
most important event, the second coming of the Lord, 
and call our attention to what on our part is necessary 
for his reception, that we may stand before him with 
honor and acceptance, and may not be ashamed before 
him at his coming. The parable of the Ten Virgins 
mainly teaches that there is required for that purpose a 
genuine persevering faith, whilst the parable of the 
Talents shows that such a faith must not be a dead 
thing, but that it binds us to make a faithful applica- 
tion of all the gifts bestowed on us by God and to the 
conscientious use of all the circumstances of our lot. 
Of course we must not form our impressions of this 
parable from households as existing among ourselves. 
There is nothing in the latter at all resembling the 
groundwork of the parable. But servants in antiquity 
were often artisans or were allowed otherwise to engage 
freely in business, paying a fixed yearly sum to their 

263 



I 



264 THE PARABLES OF JESUS. 

employer, or, as here, they had money committed to 
them wherewith to trade on his account or with which 
to enlarge their business, and to bring him in a share 
of their profits. 

The phrase "kingdom of heaven" denotes here the 
divine administration under the gospel dispensation. 
The "man" of whom mention is made is, beyond all 
doubt, the Son of man— a name that appropriately ex- 
presses the relationship of Jesus to us and our relation- 
ship to him. He is connected with us by all the ties, 
the bonds and the sympathies of humanity. He re- 
deems, he governs, he saves and glorifies us as God, 
and sympathizes with us as fellow-man. 

At the close of his ministry Jesus was about to travel 
into "a far country," leaving his disciples and ascending 
to heaven. His continued presence spiritually with his 
people is not inconsistent with this representation, for 
our parable deals with the bodily and the visible. His 
" own servants " whom he called, like the ten virgins 
who went out to meet the bridegroom, represent the 
whole number of those who are called by his name and 
seem to be his disciples. The delivery of the master's 
goods to these servants intimates that the Lord gives 
to every member of the visible Church all his faculties 
and opportunities. 

So far as we are able to discover, diversity pervades 
every department of creation throughout the whole 
universe of God. Of the various planetary orbs of 
which that universe is composed, even the most ignorant 
observer can tell that there is one glory of the sun, and 
another glory of the moon, and another glory of the 
stars, and that one star differeth from another star in 
glory. H\ again, we turn from the survey of the 



THE TALENTS. 265 

heavens to the contemplation of this lower world, we 
meet with the same diversity. ISTot only do we find in 
its mineral and vegetable kingdoms that endless diversity 
which exists between the solid and unyielding rock, for 
example, which the storms of a thousand winters leave 
unchanged, and the loose sand which is stirred by the 
lightest wind or washed away in a summer shower ; be- 
tween the hardness and brilliancy of the diamond and 
the dull but plastic clay ; between the loveliness of the 
flowers of the field and the unseemliness of the rank 
and noxious weed ; between the grandeur of the cedar 
that is in Lebanon and the lowliness of the hyssop that 
springeth out of the wall ; — not only do we perceive that 
endless diversity which distinguishes from each other 
the various classes of objects of which these mineral 
and vegetable kingdoms are composed, but within each 
of these separate classes we find a variety as great as 
that which distinguishes one class of these objects from 
another. Every production and every element, indeed, 
whether of air or earth or sea, seems to be alike im- 
pressed with this character of diversity. The wind 
moves at one time with the gentleness of a zephyr, at 
another with the devastating fury of a hurricane. Here 
the earth swells into an elevation so gentle that even a 
child may climb to its summit, ; there it elevates itself 
in some giant mountain far into the region of the clouds, 
too high almosl for the eagle to soar. Here the waters 
How in a streamlet so small as scarcely to suffice to 
quench the thirsl of the traveler stooping ere he steps 
over its narrow bed ; there they roll on in some majestic 
river whose expanded bosom might float the fleets of an 
empire. And between these several extremes what end- 
less diversities may be round ! 



266 THE PAYABLES OF JESUS. 

Nor does this diversity belong only to the objects of 
the inanimate creation. The animal world is through- 
out all its extent pervaded by a like diversity. What 
an immense gradation of being between a seraph and a 
worm! between the intelligence that can comprehend 
and the moral feeling that can adore the glories of the 
Godhead, and the feeble and sensual capacities of the 
brutes that perish! 

If we narrow the view still further, and from the 
animal world in general confine our attention to man, 
that variety of being to which we ourselves belong, we 
find in his order of existence the same all-pervading 
diversity, affecting its every property and its every con- 
dition. As to the bodily part of our nature, it presents 
every variety that can exist between the dwarf and the 
giant, between health and disease, between beauty and 
deformity. As to its spiritual part, it exhibits in one 
extreme, intelligence adequate to sway the counsels of a 
nation, in another an understanding too dull almost to 
be tauo-ht. And as to the condition in which this vari- 
ously constituted nature may be placed, it is just as 
diversified as the nature itself,— it may be in circum- 
stances of ease or of difficulty, of wealth or of poverty, 
of bustle and business or of quiet and seclusion, of loft- 
iest rank or of lowliest obscurity. 

With this evidence of God's sovereignty all around 
ns, how are we prepared for the statement of revealed 
truth, "And unto one he gave five talents, to another 
two, and to another one, to every man according to his 
several ability"! 

On this point Mr. Spurgeon says: "To the question, 
'Why has not Cod given to all men like talent.-/' my 
first answer is, Because he is a Sovereign, and of all 



THE TALENTS. 267 

attributes, next to his love, lie is the most fond of dis- 
playing his sovereignty. The Lord God will have men 
know that he has a right to do what he wills with his 
own. Hence it is that in salvation he gives it to some 
and not to others, and his only reply to any accusation 
of injustice is, ' Nay, but, O man, who art thou that re- 
plied against God? Shall the thing formed say to him 
that formed it, Why hast thou made me thus?' The 
worm is not to murmur because God did not make it 
an angel, and the fish that swims the sea must not com- 
plain because it hath not wings to fly into the highest 
heavens. God had a right to make his creatures just 
what he pleased, and, though men may dispute his right, 
he will hold and keep it inviolate against all comers. 
That he may hedge his right about and make vain man 
acknowledge it, in all his gifts he continually reminds us 
of his sovereignty. 1 1 will give to this man/ he says, 
'a mind so acute that he shall pry into all secrets; I 
will make another so obtuse that none but the plainest 
elements of knowledge shall ever be attainable by him. 
I will give to one man such a wealth of imagination that 
lie shall pile mountain upon mountain of imagery till 
his language seems to reach to celestial majesty; I will 
give to another man a soul so dull that he shall never be 
able to originate a poetic thought.' Why this, O God ? 
The answer comes back: 'Shall I not do what I will 
with mine own ?' 

"Now, mosl men quarrel with this. But mark ! The 
thing that you complain of in God is the very thing that 
yon love in yourselves. Every man likes to feel that he 
has n right i<> do with his own as he pleases. Wc all 
like i<> lie little sovereigns. You will give your money 
freely and liberally to the poor, but if any man should 



2GS THE PARABLES OF JESUS. 

impertinently urge that he had a claim upon your char- 
ity, would you give unto him? Certainly not, and 
who shall impeach the greatness of your generosity in 
so doing? It is even as that parable that we have in 
one of the evangelists, where, after the men had toiled, 
some of them twelve hours, some of them six, and some 
of them but one, the Lord gave every man a penny. 
Oh, I would meekly bow and say, 'My Lord, hast thou 
given me one talent? Then I bless thee for it, and I 
pray thee to bestow upon me grace to use it rightly. 
Hast thou given to my brother ten talents? I thank 
thee for the greatness of thy kindness toward him, but 
I neither envy him nor complain of thee.' Oh, for a 
spirit that bows before the sovereignty of God!" 

The talent of silver was worth about sixteen hundred 
dollars. The expression "five talents" is put for an 
indefinitely large sum. In the parable the talents rep- 
tile gifts of Providence committed to men for 
improvement. Wisdom, civil privileges, wealth, power, 
are talents. Not our worldly advantages only, but our 
dispositions, our feelings, our joys, our sorrows, our trials, 
every circumstance of our lives which may be made "the 
means of good to ourselves or others," — all these are part 
of the talents which the Lord has put into our hands, for 
the employment of which he will call us to account. 
That in the divine sovereignty there is an unequal dis- 
tribution of these advantages, it is, as we have already 
seen, impossible to deny. All, however, are bound to 
improve their gifts, whatever they may be, for the glory 
of the Giver. As diversity is impressed on all the de- 
partments of the universe by the hand of God, in order 
that by the separate fulfillment of the various parte 
assigned them they might combine more perfectly to 



THE TALENTS. 269 

the manifestation of their Maker's glory, so it is in the 
same way that man is to fulfill the ends of his being. 
As one plant, for example, yields its fragrance, and 
another its medicinal properties, and a third its nour- 
ishing, and a fourth its useful, materials for the protec- 
tion and shelter of man, thereby manifesting the wis- 
dom, power and goodness of Him by whom all these 
were made and bestowed, even so one man must yield 
his wealth, and another his influence, and a third his 
knowledge, and all their time and their labor, for the 
advancement of the common good and for promoting 
the glory of their common Lord. 

" To every man according to his several ability." The 
master, at the moment of his departure, graduated his 
gifts according to the abilities of the servants, that he 
might not throw a great responsibility on a weak man 
or leave a man of vigor only half employed. This 
shows, probably, that while all the gifts that a man 
3es are bestowed by God, some, such as bodily 
constitution and mental capacity, are conferred by God 
as < rovernor of the world, while others are subsequently 
conferred by the Lord Jesus as the King and Head of 
the Church. We are inclined to understand these latter 
gifts by the "goods" which the master bestowed on the 
eve of his departure. Through the unequal distribu- 
tion of manifold gifts the Church of the Lord appears 
like a body composed of many members, every one of 
which rausl contribute to the good of the whole, accord- 
ing to the [kiii assigned and the capacity bestowed on it. 
There is not a power nor a possession nor a privilege that 
we enjoy thai is not a talent ; and there is not a talent, 
minute or otherwise, which may not be sanctified to the 
Master's use and devoted to his glory. God does not 



270 THE PARABLES OF JESUS. 

tell the man who lias two talents to beg for five, nor the 
man who has one to ask for two; nor does he say that 
the one who has two should produce as much as the 
man who has live. He only asks for the vigorous use 
of that which Ave have, and on that he will bestow his 
blessing. 

We have next described the different manners in 
which the servants employ the trust committed to 
them — two being conscientious and faithful, and one 
the reverse. The first two servants thankfully ac- 
knowledge the trust placed in them by their lord, and 
the gifts bestowed on them, the obligation under which 
they lie to serve him, and the honor and blessing it 
will bring to them if they act agreeably to the will of 
their lord ; and they act accordingly. Their gain and 
increase of goods stand in exact proportion to the sums 
committed to them. 

"But he that received one, went and digged in the earth, 
and hid his lord's money " — not misspending, but simply 
making no use of it. This unworthy servant disposed 
of the talent as he did in order to its safe concealment. 
The class of men which he represents are by no means 
to be regarded as the naturally inactive and indolent. 
They are often the most diligent and enterprising. But 
in their Matter's service they manifest no energy and in- 
dustry. They are as worthless to him as though they 
slept during their whole lives. Every man, be he ever 
so active and successful in his worldly pursuits, comes 
within this class if he does not labor for the glory of 
his Saviour and the good of his fellow-men. 

The fact that the servant who had been entrusted 
with only one talent proved faithless is by no means to 
be taken as proof that the class of men which he rcpre- 



THE TALENTS. 271 

sents are more likely to abuse their talents than those of 
superior attainments and capacities for doing good and 
evil. There is many a sad exemplification of the abuse 
of talents entrusted to men of great mental powers and 
means of usefulness. The one to whom was committed 
the least amount seems to have been selected as the worth- 
less one, because it was more natural that he should be 
displeased at receiving no more, and thus go away sullen 
and discontented at his lord's partiality to his fellow-ser- 
vants. 

"A man who designs to be saved," says Quesnel, 
"must not leave the smallest talents unemployed. In 
the conduct of the children of Adam there is always 
some excess or defect, unless they are guided by the 
spirit of the second Adam : either they are desirous of 
making their talents very conspicuous if they are great, 
or they entirely suppress them if they are small and ob- 
scure. We must do quite the contrary — employ the great- 
est with humility and the least with confidence." 

" After a Jong time the lord of those servants cometh, 
cmd reckoneth with them." In the joyful coming forward 
of the faithful servants we see an example of "boldness 
in the day of judgment." They had something to show, 
as Paul so earnestly desired that he might have when he 
said to his beloved Thessalonian converts, "What is our 
hope, or joy, or crown of rejoicing? Are not ye in the 
presence of our Lord Jesus Christ at his coming?" Ob- 
serve, there is no pretension of merit implied in their 
account, fur the words "I have gained" are preceded by 
those other words, "thou deliveredst me." Our capital is 
inn Mm- own; our health and strength arc not our own; 
and whereunto we have attained, and whatsoever we 
ained, are entirely, from first to last, by the dis- 



272 THE PARABLES OF JESUS. 

languishing grace of Him who makes us to differ, and 
who gives us grace to put our talents to their legitimate 
and proper use. Observe, too, that as the gain in the 
case of these two servants -is according to the talents, 
five for five and two for two, so the commendation of 
them is expressed in exactly the same language, even as 
the reward to each is precisely the same. 

The original word rendered " Well done " has a 
peculiar force, far beyond what can be exactly expressed 
in English. It was used by auditors or spectators in 
any public exercise to express the highest applause 
when any part had been well performed. We should 
not study to please men so much as to please God. It 
is doubtless gratifying to receive the " Well done \" of 
a creature, but this in some cases may arise from ignor- 
ance, in others from friendship, and in some eases men 
may say " Well done !" when, in the sight of Him who 
judges the heart and recognizes the springs of action, 
our work may be ill done. It is the " Well done !" at 
the last day which we should seek, and with which only 
we should be satisfied. 

We are not only "servants" of Christ, entrusted with 
an important charge, but we are required to discharge 
that trust as " good and faithful " servants. The term 
" good " stands opposed to " unprofitable." A good 
and faithful servant is a profitable servant, True, we 
cannot profit Christ absolutely, but we may relatively. 
He has an interest in the world, and we may profit 
that — a people, and we may profit them ; and he will 
consider everything done to them for his sake as done 
to him ; and thus we may be profitable servants. 

It is not enough that we do no harm. Many who 
are not injurious are vet " cumberers of the ground," 



THE TALENTS. 273 

and as such are unprofitable, and as such will be cast 
out. The servant in the parable is not cast out for 
what he did, but for not doing what he ought to have 
done. We are to be faithful servants of Christ. We 
are not required to be successful : our Master was not 
very successful, but he was faithful; and so must 
we be. 

From the words of the lord to the servants severally, 
" Thou hast been faithful over a few things, I will make 
thee ruler over many things" we learn that the favor 
which Christ will show at last to his faithful servants 
will be first of all this : he will show greater con- 
fidence in them now than ever. They have had a cer- 
tain charge committed to them ; they have been faith- 
ful in that. He will now enlarge the trust which he 
will place in their hands, on the principle he himself 
enunciated : " He that is faithful in that which is least 
will be faithful also in much." If we have been "good 
and faithful servants " here, we shall " rule " there ; 
and if here we have been faithful over " a few things," 
there we shall be rulers over " many things." There 
will be a glorious augmentation of honor and blessed- 
The language is figurative. The idea may be 
expressed by an allusion to David's worthies, who 
followed him in his trials, and whom he promoted 
when lie came to the throne. Those who, to procure 
hi in a little water, fought their way through the op- 
posing army, were highly rewarded. And so Jesus 
assured his apostles: "Ye which have followed me, 
in the regeneration when the Son of man shall sit in 
the throne of his glory, ye also shall sit upon twelve 
thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel." Of 
course we are noi in understand this Identity, but the 






'274 THE PARABLES OF JESUS. 

idea conveyed appears to be this : that a faithful dis- 
charge of the trust committed to us in this world will 
contribute to our honor and blessedness in the world 
to '•nine. 

From the words, "Enter thou into the joy of thy 
Lord," it is evident that whatever the joy is that was 
set before Christ and for which he endured the cm—, 
despising the shame, — in that joy, if we have run with 
patience the race which is set before us, looking unto 
him, we shall partake. That which rejoices Christ's 
heart will rejoice ours — the glory of God in the salva- 
tion of sinners. He Mill not rejoice alone, hut will 
admit to his joy all those who have had any share in 
the great work to accomplish which he humbled him- 
self unto death. All this reward, however, will be a 
reward of grace, not of debt. "Were it not for the sake 
of Christ, nothing we do could be accepted, there being 
so much sin cleaving even to our best services. The 
Lord accepted Abel and his offering. First, he accepts 
our persons for the sake of Christ, and then our -rr- 
vices. Our services, being accepted, become also r<- 
wardable for his sake ; our future honors are a part 
of Christ's reward. 

There are some who maintain that all will have an 
equal degree of happiness in heaven. But this is an 
unscriptural and irrational notion. All will be perfectly 
happy, but some will not have so large a capacity for 
happiness as others. Every vessel will be full, but some 
vessels will contain more than others. "One star differ- 
eth from another star in glory." The apostle Paul 
must enjoy a higher degree of bliss in heaven than a 
soul caught up from infancy, since part of the happiness 
of heaven will consist of remembrance of the past 






THE TALENTS. 275 

But the diversity most important for our consideration 
is that which will arise from the manner in which we 
have performed our trust. Of this we may' be sure : 
that in proportion to the degree of fidelity with which 
Ave have discharged the trust committed to us in this 
world will be the honor and happiness conferred upon 
us in the next. 

The last servant who appears before his lord gives a 
very different account of himself from that given by 
the two others of themselves. He represents not the 
reckless that scatters or the infidel that denies, but the 
professing Christian who has a talent of some sort, an 
element of power of greater or less capability, but re- 
fuses, through mistaken views or indolence or shame 
or some other unsatisfactory reason, to make a right 
and diligent use of it. 

"And I was afraid" The man defended himself on 
the ground that he thought his master bent upon getting 
even more profit than could be fairly expected, and 
therefore little likely to make allowance for fail are or 
To guard against this he hid the money in the 
earth ; there it would at least be safe, though it could 
make no profit. Obviously, the conception which this 
man had funned of his master's character was the cause of 
hi- unprofitable idleness. Think of God as your Father 
and your Benefactor, and you will serve him joyously 
as children; think of God as a hard taskmaster, and 
you will either serve him as slaves or you will give 
up serving in despair. But the master replied to this 
servanl in the way he deserved. The argument appears 
t.» have been as follows: "Though it were really true, 
aa fchou sayest, thai I reap where I sow not, and thou 
dure! not risk the money in merchandise, yet thou 



270 THE PARABLES OF JESUS. 

oughtest to have put it out to the public money-chang- 
ers, to interest ; -Mine exertion should have been made." 
He mentioned this use of the talent because it was the 
lowesl that could be made,,and was attended with the 
lea-t trouble — to intimate that though the servant had 
not pursued with his lord's money that particular trade; 
in which, according to the custom of the times, he had 
been instructed, yet if he had been at any pains at all 
to improve the stock committed to him he would not 
have been entirely to blame. 

Ungodly men and unfaithful servants of Christ have 
very wrong notions of Him who is their Master. They 
little think how kind he is to his servants, how ready 
to make allowance for them and to help them. They 
have no gratitude and love leading them to desire to do 
his will ; and, being thus without motive, they shrink 
from responsibilities which they ought to undertake, 
and are content to do nothing. 

There is, as has justly been observed, another rea- 
son which sometimes leads people to act like the man 
who buried his talent. Because their gifts are small 
and their opportunities few, therefore they despise them. 
If they were richer or more learned, or if they lived in 
a different kind of a place, and had more people to 
whom they could do good, or more ways open to them 
of working for God, how gladly, think they, would 
they lead an active and useful life ! But as it is, it 
seems to them not worth while to try. They see noth- 
ing they can do that is worth doing. Thus, having 
but one talent, they go and bury it in the earth. If 
they had live or two, they would trade with them dili- 
gently; so they think. lint would they? There is 
no reason whatever to suppose that he who neglects 



THE TALENTS. 277 

small opportunities would make use of great ones, or 
that one who lets his one talent go unemployed would 
do any better if he could exchange with his neighbor 
and have five. The man with one talent was just as 
much bound to do his best with it as the man with 
five. The person whose means of serving God seem 
the smallest is as much bound to serve him in his 
measure as he whose means are largest, and faithful 
service will receive an equal reward whether the tal- 
ents have been many or few. 

Now the doom of the servant who neither in one way 
nor the other had sought his master's interests is pro- 
nounced. And it will be noticed that he is not con- 
demned because he has turned the talent to bad account, 
but because he has not turned it to any account at all. 
" Take ye therefore the talent from him." All oppor- 
tunity for serving Christ is now for ever withdrawn 
from the wicked and slothful servant. He has slighted 
that on earth, and he is now driven away in his wicked- 
ness out of the dwelling of his Master, wherein alone 
service is possible. There is something very startling 
in the reflected light which is thrown on this part of 
the parable by that other where the " rich man " is in 
torment. He desires a drop of water for himself. He 
cannot have it. Hope as regards himself is extin- 
guished. But if that cannot be, he would help his 
brethren — he would send a message to them to warn 
them. That cannot be either. While he was on earth 
he buried his opportunity of serving God, in regard to 
these as well as other tilings, amid his "purple and fine 
linen" and "sumptuous fare" And now the "talent 
is taken from him." He wishes to do now what he 
might have done before, but the time has gone by, the 



278 



THE PARABLES OF JESUS. 




die is cast, and the " outer darkness " wraps in its eter- 
nal gloom the idle, slothful, wicked servant who hid 
liis lord's money. 

"And give it unto him which hath ten talents" A 

deep and precious truth lies under this. The man who 
had five talents received that number "according to 
his ability." By having another talent given to him 
at last it is intimated that his " ability " has become 
greater than it was before. And so will it be, indeed, 
with the faithful servant who shall enter into his 
Master's joy in heaven. His ability, his capacity, his 
power will be gloriously increased and enlarged, and, 
still " according to that ability," will his divine Master 
place within his reach increased and enlarged oppor- 
tunities of serving him. 

" For unto every one that hath .shall be given, and he 
shall have abundance." Observe, it is not merely that 
one receives more and the other loses what he had, but 
that very gift which the one loses the other receives ; he 
is enriched with a talent taken from the other, while on 
his part another takes his crown. We see this contin- 
ually. By the providence of God one steps into the 
place and the opportunities which another left unused, 
<\iu\ so has forfeited. " Whosoever hath" — has rightly 
employed what was committed to him, exercised his 
gift with the required diligence, fidelity and conscien- 
tiousness — " to him shall be given ;" more shall be put 
into his hands, as is wont to be the rule among men. 
So shall it be, in the highest degree, with God. The 
proper use of all divine gifts multiplies them to their 
possessors, "and he shall hare abundance " — a more ex- 
tensive sphere of action, and therewith more oppor- 
tunities for the exercise of his fidelity. " /hit from him 



THE TALENTS. 279 

that hath not " — wants diligence and carefulness, there- 
fore has not rightly executed the trust committed to him 
— " shall be taken away even that which he hath " — the 
just desert of his guilt and a judgment demanded alike 
by the wisdom and the righteousness of God. 

" And east ye the unprofitable servant into outer dark- 
ness : there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth." It 
will be noticed that the reward of unfaithfulness is, 
" Take the talent from him and cast him out." In 
both parts the sentence of condemnation corresponds 
to its opposite in the reception of those who had been 
faithful to their trust. These retain their employed 
gifts ; from him the unused talent is taken away. 
These are received into their master's favor ; he is 
cast out of his master's sight. The sentence, " Take 
it from him," goes before the sentence, " Cast him 
out." A sinner is given over to himself before he is 
given up to judgment. The first prepares the way 
for the second death ; the process is now going on by 
which the destiny is decided. Now is the accepted 
time, now either salvation or condemnation is wrought 
out. Outer darkness seems a fitting retribution for 
those who, when light came into the world, loved 
darkness rather than light, because their deeds were 
evil. Weeping and gnashing of teeth is a strong image 
of that utter despair, darkness and death of a soul 
excluded from God, who "is light, and in him is no 
darkness at all." 

Let us not miss the lesson derivable from the sen- 
tence ju-t in. tired. It is not enough that we abstain 
from doing evil, if we also refrain from doing good. 
If we desire to avoid the punishment of the unprof- 
itable servant, we must seek to the utmost of our 



280 



THE PARABLES OF JESUS. 



ability to possess, and act according to that whereby 
the Lord worketh in us and forms us for his pleasure. 

Let us in season prepare to avoid the dreadful destiny 
of the unprofitable servant-. Have we riches t Let us 
not spend them in luxury and vice, but wisely use 
them in acts of mercy and kindness. Have we power 
and authority f Let us remember that we are account- 
able not only for our own sins, but in a great measure 
for those of others which we might prevent. Have we 
learning and knowledge f These are talents, and they 
are not to be put under a bed or a bushel, but must 
be set on a candlestick, that they may give light to 
others. Concealed knowledge is little better than 
downright ignorance. Time and opportunity are also 
talents, and we shall be punished for not using as well 
as for misusing them. " Diem perdidi !" — I have lost 
a day ! — was a melancholy reflection to a heathen ; and 
how much more should it be to one professing to be a 
Christian ! The devil tempts other sinners, but the idle 
man tempts the devil. It is necessary, indeed, that we 
should have our recreations, for the bow cannot be al- 
ways bent, the mind cannot be ever fixed and intent on 
business ; but we should never give way to pleasure but 
that we may return to duty again with the greater life 
and vigor. 



•THE * gROWINg * SEED,* 



" Sow in the morn thy seed, 
At eve hold not thy hand : 
To doubt and fear give thou no heed ; 
Broadcast it round the land. 

" Beside all waters sow, 

The highway furrows stock ; 
Drop it where thorns and thistles grow, 
Scatter it on the rock. 

" The good, the fruitful ground 
Expect not here nor there : 
Air, hill and dale, by plots 'tis found: 
Go forth, then, everywhere. 

" Thou knowest not which may thrive, 
The late or early sown ; 
Grace keeps the precious germ alive 
When and wherever sown. 

" And duly shall appear, 

In verdure, beauty, strength, 
The tender blade, the stalk, the ear, 
And one full corn at length. 

" Thou canst not toil in vain : 

Cold, heat, and moist and dry, 
Shall foster and mature the grain 
For garners in the sky." 
24* 2S1 



26 And he said, So is the kingdom of God, as if a man should cast 
2j seed into the ground ; And should sleep, and rise night and day, 

28 and the seed should spring and grow up, he knoweth not how. For 
the earth bringeth forth fruit of herself ; first the blade, then the 

29 ear, after that the full corn in the ear. But when the fruit is 
brought forth, immediately he putteth in the sickle, because the 
harvest is come. 

Mark iv. 26-29. 
282 



THE GROWING SEED. 



HPHIS parable is peculiar to Mark. The position 
-*- which it occupies throws some light upon its 
design. The impression which the parable of the 
Sower produced upon the hearts of the hearers, and 
especially of the apostles, might be discouraging. For 
if a sower, with all diligence and fidelity, had yet to 
find that much seed should fail to bring forth fruit to 
perfection, he might be tempted to think his labor had 
been in vain. In order to prevent such an effect, to 
strengthen his apostles, as well as all teachers of the 
gospel, with joyful hoj)es, stimulate them to continued 
faithfulness, and direct their eyes to the happy result in 
which their labors were certain to issue, our Lord 
delivered this parable, in which he shows that the 
announcement of divine truth should always be made 
with joyful confidence in its inherent vitality and the 
fruitful operations of the Holy Spirit. Nor need 
there be any surprise at the parable being in one Gospel 
and not in another. This may be said of others; and 
in truth, at the best, there could only be a very limited 
selection made in the reporting of what Jesus did and 
said, for otherwise, as John says, "I suppose that even 
the world itself could not contain the books that should 
be written." 

283 



284 



THE PARABLES OF JESUS. 



The words " the kingdom of God " here possess the 
same significancy which the similar phrases have in 
those passages in which it is said that " the kingdom of 
heaven oometh not with observation" and "the kingdom 
of heaven is within yon." What is meant in all these 
places is the reign of Heaven's principles over the heart 
of man. Let the word of God be addressed to him, 
and come home to his heart with a deep sense of its 
truth and obligation : this is the good seed taking root 
in it. Let his faith in the word be genuine, and have 
its legitimate effects on his character and walk : this is 
the good seed yielding in abundance the fruit of right- 
eousness. And thus it is that while in one parable a 
teacher of the word is compared to a sower, in the 
parable before us the train of influences upon the taught 
is compared to a process of vegetation. 

The " seed " here referred to is the truth of God. In 
the business of agriculture it is not the work of the hus- 
bandman to manufacture the grain which he is to sow. 
The seed-grain is provided for him by a higher hand. 
It is something different from the mass in which it is 
to be placed. In like manner, the gospel is not an 
earthly element neutralizing or dislodging a rival. It 
is not an influence created or excited by man. It is not 
machinery manufactured by philosophy or by human 
genius. It is no earthly force. It is a divine element, 
coming down from heaven and lodged ill the heart of 
humanity. 

Seed must be sown. Left in the granary it will decay, 
but cast into the congenial soil it will bear much fruit. 
As, therefore, the farmer only plants the seed which 
God has prepared for him, following his judgment in 
suiting the various kinds of seed to various soils, so the 



THE GROWING SEED. 285 

spiritual instructor is called not to excogitate the truth 
he is to teach, but merely to a simple acquiescence in the 
Bible and a faithful exposition of it. The gospel must 
be preached. The winds do not chant it, the stars do 
not write it, the waves of the sea do not chime it. God 
has appointed men to preach, in order that the people 
may hear and be saved. The ministry is thus not a 
sinecure, but a work ; pastors are laborers with Christ, 
fellow-workmen with him. They have seed to sow ; 
and of all laborers they ought to be the most diligent, 
because upon their toils depend results that are limited 
only by eternity. 

It is with peculiar aptness that God's word is likened 
to seed. Dry and dead as it seems, let a seed be planted 
with a stone — flashing diamond or burning ruby — and 
while that in the richest soil remains a stone, this 
awakens, and, bursting its husky shell, rises from the 
ground to adorn the earth with beauty, perfume the air 
with fragrance or enrich men with fruit. Ever should 
this be remembered. The minister of the gospel may 
speak to the people in figures so beautiful that they 
would be charmed, or in strains of rhetoric so impres- 
sive that they should go away like Ezekiel's hearers, 
having listened to him as to one who plays beautifully 
upon an instrument; yet no good would be done. 
■Figures of speech, elegant metaphors, pretty conceits, 
preached from the pulpit, may help the end in view 
as feathers do the arrow's flight, but in themselves or by 
themselves they are as worthless for the object proposed 
a- pearls from the depths of the sea, sown by the farmer 
in the spring, with the foolish hope that they will grow 
up into a great and blessed harvest. It is solely to 
God's word, blessed by his Spirit, that sinners owe their 



286 THE PARABLES OF JB8US, 

conversion and saints their quickening and comfort in 
the sanctuary. 1 ii< patient is healed by the medicine, 
nut by what gilds it; the hungry are \\'<\ by the meat, 
not by what garnishes it; and conversions show the life 

that was in the seed, not in the sower or in the soil. 
There is power of propagation in <^l-(\. Thus, a single 
grain of corn would, were the produce of each season 
sown again, bo spread from field to field, from country to 
country, from continent to continent, as in the course of 
a few years to cover the whole surface of the earth with 
one wide harvest — employing all the sickles, filling all 
the barns and feeding all the mouths in the world; Such 
an event, indeed, could not happen in Nature, because 
each latitude has its own productions, and there is no 
plant formed to grow alike under the sun of Africa and 
amid the snows of Greenland. It is the glory of the 
gospel, and one of the evidences of its divine origin, that 
it eon, and, unless prophecy fail, that it shall. There is 
not a shore which shall not be sown with this seed, not 
a land but shall yield harvests of glory to God and of 
souls for heaven. By revolutions that are overturning 
all things, by war's rude and bloody share, and other- 
wise, God is breaking up the fallow ground and plough- 
ing the earth for a glorious seed-time. The seed that 
sprang up in Bethlehem shall wave over Arctic snows 
and desert sands; and as every shore is washed by one- 
sea, and every land that lies between the poles is girdled 
by one atmosphere, and every drop of blood that flows 
in human veins belongs to one great family of brothers, 
so in God's set time men of every color and tongue shall 
cherish a common faith and trust in a common Saviour. 
It was of that, and of this seed-time, the Psalmist spoke 
when, standing on the heights of prophecy and looking 



THE GROWING SEED. 287 

along the vista of distant ages, he said, " There shall be 
a handful of corn in the earth on the top of the moun- 
tains; the fruit thereof shall shake like Lebanon ;" " his 
name " — referring to Christ's — " his name shall endure 
for ever ; men shall be blessed in him, and all nations 
shall call him blessed." 

At the time when our Lord uttered this parable he 
was himself the Sower ; he was eradicating the errors of 
the Jewish people, and sowing eternal truth in their 
stead ; he was declaring the real nature of God's heavenly 
kingdom, and revealing the way which leads to it; he 
was opening to mankind the secrets of their own corrupt 
hearts and the renewing change which they required ; he 
was explaining what is, and what is not, "true and un- 
dented religion." Thus he cast seed into the ground which 
should long remain. It was to remain in the memories 
of those who received it till called forth by the influence 
of the Holy Spirit, and disclosed, by a gradual develop- 
ment, " to the Jew first, and afterward to the Gentile." 
It was to be transmitted from city to town and from 
town to village, from province to province, from country 
to country. 

And what Christ, the chief Husbandman, and his 
apostles after him, then did in person, has been carried 
on since, and is constantly being carried on, by those who 
believe Ins word. The sowers who cast the seed are of 
various orders. They are the ministers, to whom a held 
is entrusted thai tiny should dress and keep it; they are 
the parents, whose duty is to imbue the infant mind with 
the Scriptures from its youth; they are the masters of 
families, who, like faithful Abraham, "command their 
household that they keep the way of the Lord;" they 
arc the missionaries, who cause the heathen to hear. 



288 



THE PARABLES OF JESUS. 



"every man in liis own tongue, the wonderful works of 
( rod ; " they arc the zealous ( thristians, who, in whatever 
station or circumstances, use their means and opportu- 
nities to drop the fructifying word into the soil of the 
human heart. 

The husbandman having sown the seed, says our par- 
able, eats, drinks and sleeps, and waits the issue. He 
cannot see how it fares with the seed; neither at this 
stage <an he put his hand to the work to help it. At 
this point the likeness between the natural and the spir- 
itual is exact and obvious. When we have made the 
gospel of Christ known to those in whom we are in- 
terested, we are precisely in the position of the agricul- 
turist who has committed the grain to the ground. 
Thinking of the matter when we lie down or when we 
awake, we discover, perhaps with pain, that we do not 
know whether the seed is swelling and springing or not, 
and that, even though we knew its condition, we could 
not reach it to stimulate its growth. It is out of our 
hand- and out of our sight. It is ours patiently to ex- 
pect that what is sown may, through the divine blessing, 
grow and bring forth fruit, knowing that, though Paul 
may plant and Apollos water, the increase is from God. 

This patient waiting, however, is not to be accom- 
panied with inactivity. The farmer can help, and does 
help, the SOWn seed much by his care. He keeps the 

fences up, that the field may not be trampled by stray 
cattle; he keeps the drains open and the furrows clear, 
that water may not stand on the field, but run oil' a- soon 
as it falls; he gathers off the stones, that they may not 
crush the >ca\ ; and pulls out (he weed-, that the}' may 
not choke it. In a similar way, and with similar profit, 
teachers of the word may remove obstructions which 



THE GROWING SEED. 289 

would prevent its growth. And this they are bound to 
do. It is true they cannot make it grow by their care, 
but they can make it not grow by their carelessness. 
They cannot do the saving, but they can do the destroying. 

" And the seed should spring and grow up, he know- 
e-th not how." It is by a mysterious yet invincible power 
that the feeble shoot forces its way through the heavy 
clods which cover it. We know not how it grows. All 
we know is, that it does so by a secret power which we 
call Nature, but which is, in fact, the power of God put 
forth in that particular way. So frail is the forming 
blade that the slightest breeze threatens to beat it to the 
earth, while yet so strong is it that it will spring forth 
to the light though pressed down by an earthy covering. 
Thus, under the Spirit's blessing, do the plants of right- 
eousness, though they may be heavily weighed down by a 
body of sin and death, by manifold temptations and fears, 
nevertheless grow upward to the Source of eternal day. 
Satan may place the heavy foot of persecution upon the 
growing kingdom of Christ, but he cannot press out its 
life, for its roots are divine ; he may endeavor to put his 
finger upon the rising sap in the true Vine, that so the 
branches may not appear, but he cannot. The life 
which Christ imparts to the soul will rise and rise 
until it bursts into life, compelling even the ungodly 
to admit that Christ has gained another friend and 
I [eaven another heir. 

"For the earth bringeth forth fruit of herself," as 
if from a self-acting power. The growth in Nature is 
according to certain laws which act independently of 
man's agency, though the agency of God, who estab- 
lished these laws and ads through them, is not denied. 
The same is true in the kingdom of grace: spiritual 



290 THE PARABLES OF JESVS. 

growth is independent of human agency. That God'a 
power is involved appears from the whole tenor of 
Scripture. While, therefore, the main lesson is about 
spiritual things, that lesson rests on an analogy of 
Nature, assuming that in Nature God operates through 
the laws lie has established. The growth of the king- 
dom of God, in general and in individuals, is according 
to a development which is natural — i.e. in accordance 
with certain laws in the realm of grace which are anal- 
ogous to what are called natural laws, and, like them, 
acting with a certain spontaneousness, though God's con- 
stant energy is present in both. 

"First the blade, then the ear, after that the full corn 
in the ear." Before the blade appears above ground 
the seed has sprouted beneath the surface. No eve saw 
it then, for it was hidden in the earth. So the first 
work of grace in the heart is an unseen work. No hu- 
man eve beholds it; no one knows the secret thoughts, 
the struggles, the doubts, the fears, the hopes, of one in 
whom the spiritual life is beginning; no ear but God's 
hears the prayers he puts up; no human eye marks 
what takes place within. This unseen work is often 
for a time painful work while there is conviction of sin 
but no clear hope of Christ. Yet it is a blessed work 
notwithstanding, for it is life beginning in the soul. 

How silently does the green blade come forth from 
the bosom of the earth! — so silently that if we were to 
place our ear close to the soil it would bring us no intel- 
ligence of the npspringing life. And with what noise- 
beps does divine mercy come to the sinner's heart to 
make way for the sinner's Friend ! I low softly does the 
dew- of heaven Steal into the heart to cause the seed of 

truth to germinate and grow ! 



THE GROWING SEED. 291 

The seed grows gradually from stage to stage. Three 
stages are specified : " first the blade, then the ear, then 
the full corn in the ear." In the first stage of growth 
it is not easy to distinguish with certainty between the 
wheat and common grass ; it is when the ear is formed 
and filled that we know at a glance which is the fruitful 
and which the fruitless plant. There is a similar ambi- 
guity, in as far as appearance is concerned, in the earliest 
outgrowth of convictions from the hearing of the word. 
Xot that there is any uncertainty in the nature of the 
things: the wheat is wheat, and the grass is grass, from 
the first; but an observer cannot so surely at first deter- 
mine Avhich is wheat and which is merely grass. 

Thus, many hopeful impressions that appear for a 
while in the young die away and bring forth no fruit; 
but at later stages a judgment may be formed with 
greater confidence. The plant assumes by degrees a 
jii« >re definite form and a more substantial fullness. 
The " car " at once declares to man its true nature and 
real worth. The Christian graces begin to show them- 
selves, knowledge becomes clearer, the character is more 
consolidated, and the young man in Christ appears strong 
to bear and to do the will of God. 

The season advances, and the plant grows still. The 
car that had become full and round changes its color 
and hardens. Many a day has the sun shone upon it, 
many a shower lias refreshed it, many a storm perhaps 
has blown over it. Through all this it has been grow- 
ing stronger, fuller and riper, and now at length it has 
reached it- maturity — "the full corn in the ear." The 
Christian grows too, making progress in the spiritual 
life mid bringing forth riper fruit. lie also has had 
experience of sun and rain and storms — the grace and 



292 



THE PARABLES OF JESUS. 



love of God, the work of the Spirit, temptations and 
trials — and he too lias thus become stronger, more deep- 
ly rooted in Christ, more humble, more loving, moss 

zealous, more Fruitful in holiness. I To is now no 
novice. He has learned much of the spiritual life, and 
through grace he adorns his profession, llv is known 
by his fruits. As those who now pass by the field say, 
11 The corn is ripening," so do they who observe such a 
man's life say of him that he is ripening too. And so 
in truth he is — ripening for heaven and becoming- meet 
for the inheritance of the saints in light. 

The Rev. Dr. Storrs thus beautifully describes the 
progress of the Christian life: "The kingdom of God 
begins in any man in the solemn and central purpose 
of his soul to become like God, to honor and to serve 
him— the personal commitment of himself to the Father 
through the mediation of the Son and under the quick- 
ening influence of the Spirit. And yet this purpose is 
but the commencement of a course whose end is still 
distant. One temptation after another must be met and 
overcome. One desire after another, which has grown 
inordinate through long indulgence, must be brought 
into harmony with the law of holiness. The principles 
of action, though now pure and high, require to be con- 
firmed by the discipline of effort; the thoughts of divine 
truth to be made more clear, comprehensive, controlling; 
above all, the affections demand to be developed, cher- 
ished, matured, until they shall answer as they ought to 
God's character, until they shall spring spontaneously 
toward Christ on his cross or his throne, until they shall 
purely control and impel our whole moral action, mak- 
ing duly a delight, privation a pleasure if borne for 
God, and death a sure and immeasurable gain. 



THE GROWING SEED. 293 

" It is not until after long seasons of effort that this 
magnificent consummation is reached, that the world 
seems nothing and God all in all, that the cross becomes 
the summit-fact in personal experience as in the world's 
history, and that heaven opens bright and near its gates 
of pearl. It is not until sorrows and prosperities both 
have brought their ministry from God to the soul ; not 
till life has been experienced in its successes and its 
changes ; not till sermons and treatises, works and wor- 
ships, self-denials and charities, homes and teachers, 
have done their office, and the communion with friends, 
the communion of the Church, contemplation, study, 
prayer, self-scrutiny, — all have taught and disciplined 
the soul and brought it in a measure to the likeness of 
Christ. This harvest comes after long summer — first 
a purpose, then a principle, then a habit, then a life, 
pervading, renewing, glorifying the soul; then the 
heavenly nature and peace." 

" But when the fruit is brought forth, immediately 
he putteth in the sickle, because the harvest is come." 
The harvest is not only at the end of the world, nor is 
it. as we have just seen, even at the close of a Christian 
life in the world. There is a ripening and a fruit- 
bearing while life in the body lasts; there is also a 
reaping and an enjoying of the harvest by those who 
BQW the seed or by their successors. We come to a 
deathbed — a Christian departs like a sheaf ripe and fit 
for transference into the kingdom of heaven. We some- 
times Bee a harvest, as a foretaste of the ultimate one, 
in a congregation, which, after long lying fallow, 
Bcorched and parched by the sun, comes under a new 
birth, and its very solitary places blossom as the rose. 

The harvesl is sure to be reaped in all its fullness, 



294 THE PARABLES OF JESUS. 

however, ai the end of the world. IT<>\\- beautiful is 
harvest ! It is only exceeded by spring. It is then 
that Nature sits on her golden sheaves, like a mother 
amidst her rejoicing oflspring, and creation seems to 
lift up its glad anthem of praise unto Him who is the 
Lord of the spring and the Lord of the harvest. But 
all the harvests of the earth, when ripest, will be noth- 
ing to that last harvest when angels are the reapers and 
Jesus watches over all. 

Let us have faith in God's word, sowing it whenever 
and wherever we have opportunity. Nor let us be im- 
patient as to results.. If there is an interval between 
sowing the seed and gathering the fruits in the natural 
world, so may there be in the spiritual. What are 
called instantaneous conversions are frequently the re- 
sults of long-hidden processes. AVe are not to suppose 
that no good is done by a sermon or a tract because its 
echo does not come from every pew and every house. 
God will bless his own truth. 



^•THE* TWO* DEBTORS 



' Mercy, that wipes the penitential tear, 

And dissipates the horrors of despair, 

From righteous justice steals the 'vengeful hour, 

Softens the dreadful attribute of power, 

Disarms the wrath of an offended God, 

And seals my pardon in a Saviour's blood." 

295 



41 There was a certain creditor which had two debtors: the one 

42 owed five hundred pence, and the other fifty. And when they had 
nothing to pay, he frankly forgave them both. Tell me therefore, 

43 which of them will love him most ? Simon answered and said, / 
suppose that he, to whom he forgave most. And he said unto him, 
Thou hast rightly judged. 

Luke vii. 41-43. 



THE TWO DEBTORS. 



TESUS was invited to an entertainment by a Pharisee. 
^ While he sat at table in his house a woman brought 
a box of ointment and anointed his feet, with every 
manifestation of profound gratitude and admiration. 
Who this woman was cannot with certainty be determin- 
ed. There is no reason whatever to suppose that she was 
either Mary Magdalene or Mary the sister of Lazarus ; 
the latter certainly anointed our Lord's feet a few days 
before his crucifixion, but it is perfectly gratuitous to 
conclude that she anointed them twice, or that Mary 
Magdalene ever anointed them at all. All that is told 
of the woman here spoken of is, that she dwelt in " the 
city," most likely Nain, and that she "was a sinner." 
" The sinner " was her opprobrious epithet. The guilt 
of a life of shame was branded on her brow. She was 
probably a Gentile — one of those unhappy outcasts that 
had been imported by the corruption of Roman man- 
ners, the lawless vices of the capital being (as we know 
from contemporary history) let loose on her subject 
provinces. 

All at once, however, her life has become changed. 
How she may have been prepared to undergo so vast 
a revolution in her history we cannot tell. For years 
her soul may have been struggling in vain to gei 

297 



298 



THE PARABLES OF JESUS. 



free; her heart may have been torn and tortured with 
the memories of a blighted past and a miserable pres- 
ent; and yet she may have known no faithful ear to 
which she could reveal her wretchedness. The reool- 
leetions of joyous and innocent childhood and a happy 
home may have mingled sadly with the thought of the 
broken hearts there left. A future of desolation rose 
before her. No Gadarene demoniac more truly than 
she went about "seeking rest and finding none." But 
now rest she has found. Her base betrayers mock her 
tears and self-reproaches. But she has heard one Voire 
which has spoken peace to her troubled soul. 

That a woman, and one of the character here repre- 
sented, should have pressed into the guest-chamber un- 
invited, and that she should have been there permitted 
to oiler to the Saviour the form of homage which she 
did, may at first sight appear strange ; yet, as has well 
been said, this, after all, docs not require the suppo- 
sition of something untold for its explanation, as that 
she was a relation of Simon's or lived in the same 
house — suppositions which are altogether strange, not 
to say contradictory, to the narrative. A little ac- 
quaintance with the manners of the East, where meals 
are often almost public, where ranks are not separated 
with such iron barriers as with us, will make us feel 
with what ease such an occurrence might have taken 
place. 

The behavior of Jesus in offering no interruption to 
the woman's manifestations of affectionate gratitude was 
to the Pharisee in the highest degree offensive, as he, 
in common with his sect, judged it quite unseemly for 
a pious man to come into near contact with persons of 
profligate character. This is not the spirit of th 



THE TWO DEBTORS. 299 

pel nor the tone or temper of a Christian. The sinner 
is to be pitied, however sternly the sin in which he 
indulges ought to be rebuked. He needs deeply to be 
pitied. It is not the cold, sarcastic remark, nor the bit- 
ter theological rancor, nor the ceremonial and sectarian 
repugnance, that will do him good. 

The conclusion arrived at by the pharisaical Simon, 
that Christ could not be a prophet, besides implying 
that all intercourse with sinners is in every respect 
blameworthy, proceeds also upon the false presumption 
that the prophets must have known the entire condition 
of the persons with whom they conversed ; which in- 
deed they did in some particular cases, but not generally. 
Then, too, Simon improperly took the woman for what 
she had been at an earlier period, an open and abandoned 
sinner, which she no longer was. For, though called 
" sinner," this was no more evidence of her continuance 
in her former state, and against her having experienced 
divine grace, than Matthew's being called a publican 
long after his conversion is proof that he had not 
abandoned his vocation. Against this false conclusion, 
though affecting himself, Jesus did not immediately 
direct himself, lint rather aimed to justify the conduct 
of the woman as quite natural, and as flowing from the 
woman's inward experience. At the same time, his 
words were intended to press on the Pharisee, by way 
of application, the impropriety of his behavior, and of 
awakening him to a better knowledge of himself. 

Though Simon did not speak aloud, Jesus saw those 
disparaging thoughts which were kindling in his self- 
righteous heart, and opened (lie conversation thus: "Si- 
mon, I have somewhat to say unto thee." The Pharisee 
answered, " Master, say on." Though the host had just 



300 



THE PARABLES OF JESUS. 



pronounced his guesl to be an impostor, the worthless 
courtesy of the lips proclaimed him "Master" still. 

The creditor in the parable is God, in whom we live 
and move and have our being — from whom we derive 
all, and to whom we must account for all. The debtors 
arc sinful men, and the debts the sins which they have 
severally done. 

Of the two debtors mentioned in the parable, while 
both are in debt, one owes ten times as much as the 
other. There is a great difference between the two 
sums. The disproportion, we think, would not have 
been so great as it is stated to have been if it had been 
the design of the Lord here to teach us how much the 
guilt of one man may exceed that of another in the 
sight of God. From the circumstances of this case we 
may safely gather that these sums represent not the al so- 
lute quantity of sin-debt that stood against these debtors 
in the book of divine justice, but the estimate which they 
made of their own shortcomings. The plan of Provi- 
dence in the present life permits every man to keep his 
own accounts of debt to God ; no neighbor is empowered 
to record the items and sum them up, unless the owner 
of the account-book opens it of his own accord for the 
inspection of his neighbor. 

From the expression, "And when they had nothing to 
pay, lie frankly forgave them both," two things on the 
part of the debtors are indubitable — the certainty of 
their debt and their incapacity to make restitution; 
while on the pari of the creditor there appears in the 
remission of the debt a very great goodness, and that 
goodness perfectly free. Such also is the relation of 
the sinner to God. Man is irritable, revengeful and 
stands out against forgiving those that have offended 



THE TWO DEBTORS. 301 

him ; but God forgives the greatest and the least sins. 
" My thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your 
ways my ways/' says He whose forgiveness extends to 
all sin. The mercy of God is free and unmerited. So, 
too, the forgiveness of God is unchangeable and irre- 
versible. He blots out our sins, and lest they should 
be seen he covers them. To show how completely he 
does so, it is said he casts them behind his back ; and, 
lest this should not be expressive enough, he is said to 
fling them into the depths of the sea; and, lest even 
this should not be expressive enough, he says, "Their 
sins shall be sought, and shall not be found." 

There are those who maintain that love to the Saviour 
forms no necessary part of our religion — that it is the 
mere effect of high-wrought imaginations. Is this so? 
Why, then, the inquiry, " Which of them will love him 
most ?" To determine this matter it would be enough 
to let an unprejudiced person read the incident before us 
without one word of comment, and then inquire of him, 
What is the state of heart which a Saviour who spoke 
and acted thus while here below, and who is "the same 
yesterday, and to-day, and for ever," most values now? 
Can it be believed that such a man would hesitate in his 
reply? Can it be imagined that he would question the 
necessity of every thought and feeling and affection of 
the soul being devoted to the love of that blessed Being 
who lias redeemed it? No. The answer of every sim- 
ple-minded render of such an incident must be, "If any 
man love nol the Lord Jesus Christ, let him be Anath- 
ema Maran-atha." 

There is Borne little difficulty in thegeneral inference 
which our Lord draws from the parable, after Simon 
acknowledged that he who was forgiven most was tinder 



302 THE PARABLES OF JESUS. 

the greater obligation, and must reasonably be supposed 
to feel the greater affection for his merciful and generous 
creditor. At first it looks, from the words, " Thou host 
rightly judged" as if the amount of loving gratitude to 
him must depend upon the amount of our guilt, and as 
if we must love him all the more because of the depth 
of ungodliness into which we have been previously 
sunk; and so one might be tempted to say, Better to 
sin "earnestly with both hands/' in order that when 
much is forgiven Ave may love the more. Such a view 
is altogether opposed, however, to the meaning of the 
parable when fairly considered. It need hardly be said 
that it is opposed to the whole teaching of the word of 
God, which condemns in unmeasured terms sinning that 
"grace may abound/' and which certainly gives us no 
reason to suppose that the penitent robber on the cross 
loved Christ more than John or Mary or the mother of 
our Lord. ' 

The truth is, as already hinted, that the meaning of 
the parable turns on the sense on the part of the debtors 
of the greatness of the debt which i- remitted. They 
are both supposed to know exactly what has been re- 
mitted to them ; they are sensible of it. It is this 
which underlies tin,' whole parable, and so the general 
inference is very clear: That -inner loves Christ most 
who is the mod sensible of what Christ has done for 
him. If one man feels that he has bee]] forgiven, as it 
were, to the amount of "five hundred 'pence" he will 
love more deeply and more gratefully than the man 
who is only conscious of forgiveness to the extent of 
"fifty pence." In other word-, the more tender tlie 
conscience of a child of God, the more alive he has 
become to all that he Is in himself, and all thai God 



THE TWO DEBTORS. 303 

has done for him and is ready to do for him still, the 
deeper he will feel himself in debt to his Lord, the 
larger the amount which he will reckon as owing by 
him to this gracious Friend, and therefore the more 
full and deep will be his love for the frank forgiveness 
of One from whom he had no right to expect the re- 
mission of one farthing. 

Simon himself was an example of one who thus loved 
little — who, having little sense of sin, felt little his need 
of a Redeemer, and therefore loved that Redeemer but 
little; and he had betrayed this his lack of love in small 
yet significant matters. Of this Jesus reminds him. 
Turning round in meek majesty to the penitent, he 
applies to the Pharisee the simple but expressive re- 
buke : " Seest thou this woman ? I entered, a weary 
stranger, into thy house. In accordance with custom- 
ary wont, thou or thy servants should have afforded 
me water for my feet : this was denied me ; but thy 
neglect or inconsideration was more than supplied by 
her. From the welling fountains of her grief she has 
bathed my feet with her tears and wiped them with 
the hair of her head. Thou gavest me no kiss : this 
wonted courtesy to a Jewish rabbi thou hast, from 
motives of calculating prudence, withheld from me ; 
but she, ever since she crept behind this table, has nut 
ceased to kiss my feet. My head even with common 
olive oil thou didst not anoint; but this woman hath 
anointed not my head, but my very feet, and that, too, 
with costliest spikenard." 

In the act of this woman on this occasion we have 
an unfailing characteristic of a pardoned sinner — his 
unfeigned preference for the low places in the grateful 
Service of his Lord j that is, for those pious and useful 



304 THE PARABLES OF JESUS. 

I mt unobtrusive engagements which bring with them 
no worldly note or repute, bul resl for their reward on 
the divine approbation. Mark: she sits unobtrusively 
behind our Lord at his feet; her chosen position is 
there. There also are her chosen engagements. When 
Abigail was called to a high place by David, "she arose 
and 1 lowed herself on her face to the earth, and said, 
Behold, let thine handmaid be a servant to wash the 
feet of the servants of my lord." Paul chose for him- 
self the title "the chief of sinners." This character- 
istic of this pardoned woman must not be forgotten. 
Her affection was ardent but lowly. It was active, 
self-denying, unaspiring in itself, yet delightful to her. 
The pardon of sin will be known by its fruits. AYhere 
these fruits are there is a pardoned sinner. He may be 
ignorant of his own state; he may not even understand 
the significance of humility, contrition and love in deter- 
mining his own character; he may be following on, now 
weeping, now trembling, now rejoicing. AYe can readily 
conceive the vicissitudes of his frames of feeling, but his 
character with God is superior to and independent of 
them all. He is a man serving the Lord in all humil- 
ity, and sooner or later he will have the precious assur- 
ance of his interest in the divine favor. 

The words, " Wherefore, I say unto thee, Her sins, 
which arc many, are forgiven, for she loved much" do 
not mean that the woman was forgiven because she 
loved, but that she loved because she was forgiven. 
Lh'-t she was forgiven, and then she loved. "Al- 
though," says an able expositor, "in sentences of this 
form it is more common to express the effect in the 
first clause, and the cause, introduced by a 'for,' in the 
latter, yet the converse method is frequently employed, 



THE TWO DEBTORS. 305 

and is perfectly correct. You may say, 'Tan-waste 
is strewn on the street opposite this mansion, for a 
member of the family lies within it sick/ or, ' A mem- 
ber of the family lies sick within this mansion, for tan- 
waste is strewn on the contiguous street.' In the first 
instance you place the cause last, and in the second in- 
stance the effect, using precisely the same formula in 
both. ]S"or is it difficult to perceive why Jesus places 
the effect of forgiveness in the prominent position here, 
for it is the only thing that is visible to the Pharisee 
whom he desires to instruct. The pardon which this 
woman had obtained, Simon did not and could not see, 
but her love, being embodied in action, was palpable 
to his senses. It was as though our Lord had said, 
' Do not despise this woman, nor wonder that I let her 
come near to me ; do not suppose that I am not aware 
who and what she is. I know her well — far better 
than you do. I know all her past history; I know 
her present feelings and her present state. She is pen- 
itent; she is forgiven; she loves me because I have for- 
given her. You might have known the happy change 
in her by what you have seen her do. You have seen 
her show me every proof of affection. Nothing could 
have made her love me so but gratitude for sins for- 
given. Her sins, which are many, are forgiven, for 
she loved much/ " 

Let it ever be remembered that the Redeemer's for- 
giving love to sinners is the only cause of all their 
love to him : " AVc love him because he first loved us." 
Have you seen a broad path of silver brightness lying by 
night upon a smooth sea and stretching from your feet 
away until it was lost in the* distant — a path that 
seemed to have beeE trodden by the feet of all the 

26* 



6Vb THE PARABLES OF JESUS. 

saints who have ever passed through a shifting world 
to their eternal home? Oh, that silver path by night 
across the sea! It glittered much, but it was not 
its brightness that lighted, up the moon in the sky. 
Neither was it the love to Jesus trembling in a be- 
liever's heart that kindled forgiving love in him. We 
love him because he first loved us. The love that 
makes bright a forgiven sinner's path across the world 
was kindled by the light of life in the face of Jesus. 
From him and to him are all things. 

"And he said unto her, Thy sins are forgiven thee." 
The woman was really forgiven before she came to 
Christ, but now she received an authoritative decla- 
ration of it before many witnesses as a reward for her 
open expression of love and gratitude. Before, she had 
hope through grace; now, she received the assurance 
of hope. Before, she was justified before God; now, 
Jesus has justified her before men, before this pharisaic 
company, by declaring that her sins had been forgiven. 

Not only forgiveness, but the sense of forgiveness, is 
revealed in the word of God as the believer's privilege. 
We should pray for it as necessary to our own happi- 
ness and to our Saviour's glory. We should not rest 
until, by persevering prayer, we have obtained it. For 
never is Christ more honored than by the love and 
happiness of his people. How closely these are con- 
nected with the pardon of sin we need not tell. Nor 
need there be fear that the knowledge of our forgive- 
ness, the consciousness of our acceptance with God, 
will breed presumption, for in a real child of God it 
invariably begets humility. 

"Tliy faith hath saved thee." Observe, the Saviour 
does not say, " thy love," but " thy faith," hath saved 



THE TWO DEBTORS. 307 

thee. Through it she had obtained the forgiveness of 
her sins. This sense of the miserable emptiness of the 
creature — this acknowledgment that a life apart from 
God is not life, but death, with the conviction that in 
God there is fullness of grace and blessing, and that he 
is willing to impart of this fullness to all who bring 
the empty vessel of the heart to be filled by him, — this 
faith, which alone makes man receptive of any divine 
gift, this is what that Pharisee, in his legal righteous- 
ness, in his self-sufficiency and pride, possessed scarcely 
at all, and therefore he derived little or no good from 
communion with Christ. But that woman had it in a 
large measure, and therefore she bore away the largest 
and best blessing which the Son of God had to bestow, 
even the forgiveness of her sins. To her those blessed 
words were spoken : " Thy faith hath saved thee, go in 
peace ;" and in her it was proved true that " where sin 
abounded, grace did much more abound." 

How lovely this picture of the Saviour of the world 
with that despised, downtrodden, forlorn woman at his 
feet ! AVe have here a living type and embodiment of 
what Christianity has done to wipe the tears from de- 
graded womanhood and raise her from the dust to 
which paganism had doomed her. What is the chiv- 
alry of the Middle Ages but the legitimate effect of the 
elevating spirit of Christianity? Wherever Christianity 
is not, there is woman found with the curse of bondage 
and degradation resting upon her — the drudge instead 
of the helpmeet and companion of man. The first 
words that our Lord uttered when he rose from the 
grave were addressed to a whole world in tears: "Wo- 
man! why weepest thou?" He could point to that 
vacant sepulchre he had jus! left as the certain pledge 



308 THE PARABLES OF JESUS. 

that ere long these tears would be dried. O Jesus-l 
woman (personated by that poor penitent) may well 
come and lie adoring at thy feet. Thy religion has 
been the breaker of her chains and the India of her 
sorrows: we cease now to wonder that she was last at 
thy cross and first at thy tomb. 

"How evident is it from this narrative," says Mr. 
Jay, " that we should consider none of our fellow- 
enatures as entirely abandoned!" 

We grant that there are some for whom we feel, and 
ought to feel, great alarm. There are some who seem 
to have sinned away everything like conscience, and to 
have gone such lengths in wickedness that only a divine 
arm can reach them. But let us remember there is such 
an arm. And what this arm can do is not left for con- 
jecture to determine. We know what it can do from 
what it has done, for " his hand is not shortened, that 
it cannot save, neither his ear heavy, that it cannot 
hear." 

Think of this, ye parents, who, after all your prayers 
and efforts and tears, see your children walking the 
downward road! Think of this, ye ministers, who, 
after preaching for long years, see no religious move- 
ment among many of your gospel-hardened hearers! 
" God is able of these stones to raise up children unto 
Abraham." 



^THE*£OOD*gAIARITM, 



' Love never fails : though knowledge cease, 

Though prophecies decay, 
Love, Christian Love, shall still increase, 

Shall still extend her sway. 
Here dimly, through life's shadowy glass, 

We strain our infant eyes ; 
Soon shall the earth-born vapors pass, 

And light, unclouded, rise; 
Then Hope shall sink in changeless doom, 

Then Faith's bright race be o'er, 
But thou, eternal Love, shalt bloom 

More glorious than before." 

309 



25 And, behold, a certain lawyer stood up, and tempted him, saying, 

26 Master, -what shall I do to inherit eternal life ? He said unto him, 

2 7 What is written in the law ? how readest thou ? And he answering 
said, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with 
all thy soul, and with all thy strength, and with all thy mind; and thy 

28 neighbor as thyself. And he said unto him, Thou hast answered right : 

2 9 this do, and thou shalt live. But he, willing to justify himself, "said 

30 unto Jesus, And -who is my neighbor ? And Jesus answering said, A 
certain man -went down from Jerusalem to Jericho, and fell among 
thieves, -which stripped him of his raiment, and -wounded him, and 

31 departed, leaving him half dead. And by chance there came down 
a certain priest that way: and when'he saw him, he passed by on 

32 the other side. And likewise a Levite, when he -was at the place, 

33 came and looked on him, and passed by on the other side. But a 
certain Samaritan, as he journeyed, came where he was: and when 

34 he sa-w him, he had compassion on him, And went to him, and 
bound up his wounds, pouring in oil and wine, and set him on his 

33 own beast, and brought him to an inn, and took care of him. And 
on the morrow -when he departed, he took out two pence, and gave 
. them to the host, and said unto him, Take care of him ; and what- 
soever thou sfendesl more, -when I come again, I will repay thee. 

36 Which now of these three, thinkest thou, was neighbor unto him that 

37 fell among the thieves ? And he said, He that shewed mercy on 

him. Then said Jesus unto him, Go, and do thou like-wise. 

310 Luke x. 25-37. 



THE GOOD SAMARITAN. 



r | ^HE office of Christ as a Teacher was not only to 
-*- reveal what was unknown, to give men command- 
ments and to establish new doctrines, but to exhibit the 
former communications of heavenly wisdom in their 
primitive simplicity and meaning. A great part of his 
Sermon on the Mount is taken up with such corrections, 
and in this parable of " The Good Samaritan " he disen- 
cumbers the second great commandment of the law, 
"Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself," of the 
interpretations with which bigotry and selfishness had 
veiled its moaning, and presents it in its original com- 
prehensiveness of obligation. 

" A certain lawyer stood up " — in all likelihood with- 
in some synagogue upon a Sabbath day — and said to 
Jesus, " Master, what shall I do to inherit eternal life ?" 
Something more than a desire to test the extent of 
Christ's knowledge appears to have prompted his ques- 
tion. It is not presented in an abstract form. It is not, 
" Master, what should be done that eternal life may be 
inherited?" but, "Master, what shall I do to inherit eter- 
nal life?" Ii looks, as if it came from one feeling a 
deep, persona] interesl in the inquiry. The manner in 
which our Lord entertained ii confirms this impression. 

"What is written in (he law? how readesl thou?" 



312 THE PARABLES OF JESUS. 

This reply of the Saviour is as much as to say, "The 
question you ask is already answered. What need to 
make further inquiries when the answer is contained in 

the words di' that very law of which you profess to be a 
searcher and expounder? What is written there con- 
cerning this great question ?" That the lawyer should 
at once quote, as he did, the great commandment from 
Deut. vi. 5 in connection with Lev. xix. 18 proved that 
he was superior to the common range of his country- 
men. This reply was an answer to his own question. 
For there is no entrance into life or inheritance in 
heaven for an unloving spirit. Whatever be the means 
by which that love to God and man is to be produced, 
one thing is clear: that unless it docs exist there can 
be no eternal life, for " God is love," and to love God 
is to live. 

In this view our Lord's reply, "Thou hast answered 
right; this do, and thou shalt live," is to be accepted in 
all simplicity as the great universal, cardinal truth in 
the case. Life was offered at first, and life is offered 
still, as the reward of obedience. It is not needful to 
apologize for this statement or to explain it away. It 
is not contrary to evangelical doctrine. It is true that 
the fulfilling of God's law will secure his favor. Obe- 
dience deserves life, and disobedience deserves death. 
Mankind have disobeyed ; we all have sinned, and are 
therefore all under condemnation. Nothing but a pcr- 
fecl obedience can gain God's favor. Hence the incar- 
nation and sacrifice of Christ; hence the substitution 
of the just for the unjust. The gospel is not an excep- 
tion to the law, " This, do and thou shalt live;" the 
gospel is founded on that law. This law Christ came 
not to destroy, but to fulfill. 



THE GOO]) SAMARITAN. 313 

What Jesus said to the lawyer was, in substance, 
this : " Your knowledge is correct and admirable ; just 
convert it into action. You have plenty of light ; now 
let it shine through every act of your life and every 
utterance of your lips. Your answer is admirable ; only 
let your head and your heart and your hand be in perfect 
harmony, and the whole law will attest that you have 
fulfilled it. If you do perfectly fulfill it you shall 
live, but this cannot be done by you nor by others, 
and therefore life must be sought elsewhere." 

But, much as the lawyer might have deceived himself 
as to his loving God, he knew, as we all do, many cases 
in which he had not loved his neighbor as he loved himself. 
How could he escape from the dilemma in which he was 
placed ? He wished to justify himself in regard to these 
violations of the law, and to remove the blame from him- 
self, on the ground that it might be laid upon the law 
itself and its divine Author, who had not sufficiently 
explained what he had meant by the term neighbor, and 
had thus given occasion to disobedience against this com- 
mand. Hence his question, "And who is my neighbor?" 
and hence the parable which follows. 

The "certain man" was evidently a Jew. It could not 
be said of a Samaritan, who was not permitted to go to 
Jerusalem, that he was departing thence to another place. 
Besides, unless we suppose this man to have been a Jew, 
having acknowledged claims upon the kindness and pro- 
tection of the priest and Levite, the point of the parable 
is lost. 

How fitly the road from Jerusalem to Jericho was 

made (lie scene of this story will appear when it is 
understood that this road has always been infested by 
daring and desperate robbers. " It passes," says Dr. 



314 THE PARABLES OF JESUS. 

Ilanna, "through the hear! of the eastern division of 
the wilderness of Judsea, and runs for a considerable 
space along the abrupt and winding sides of a deep and 
rocky ravine, offering the greatest facilities for conceal- 
ment and attack. From the number of robberies and 
murders committed in it Jews of old called it ' the 
Bloody Road/ and it retains its character still. AVe 
traveled it guarded by a dozen Arabs, who told by the 
way of an English party that the year before had been 
attacked and plundered and stripped; and we were kept 
in constant alarm by the scouts sent out beforehand 
announcing the distant sight of dangerous-looking Bed- 
ouins. All the way from Bethany to the plain of Jordan 
is utter solitude — one single ruin, perhaps that of the 
very inn to which the wounded Jew was carried, being 
the onlv sign of human habitation that meets the eye. 
Somewhere along this road the solitary traveler of 
whom Jesus speaks is attacked. Perhaps he carries 
his all along with him, and, unwilling to part with it, 
stands upon his defence, wishing to sell life and prop- 
erty as dearly as he can. Perhaps he carries but little 
— nothing that the thievish band into whose hands he 
falls much value. Whether it is that a struggle has 
taken place, or that exasperation at disappointment 
whets their wrath, the robbers of the wilderness strip 
their victim of his raiment, wound him and leave him 
there half dead." 

" And by chance there came down a certain priest that 
was: and when he saw him, he passed by on the other 
side." Nothing happens by chance, in the sense of an 
accident without a cause. it Mas not by chance in this 
sense that the pries! came by that road at that time; the 
expression simply means, "it so happened/' It was by 



THE GOOD SAMARITAN. 315 

that concurrency of events which is so often to be seen 
distinguishing the acts of God's providence. Many good 
opportunities are concealed under those events which to 
us appear to be fortuitous. If we happen to come in 
view of a man in distress, that is just the intimation of 
God that we must help him as much as we can, and not 
to regard such an intimation is not the humane disposi- 
tion which our Lord so highly praises. 

Twelve thousand priests and Levites were stationed at 
Jericho with a view to the rotation of service at Jerusa- 
lem. Hence the peculiar propriety with which our Lord 
introduces the priest and Levite as passing this way. 
Whether the priest was traveling to discharge his office 
or returning from the performance of its duties, we are 
unavoidably led to expect, on account of his standing 
and office, that he would be disposed to manifest a com- 
passionate feeling. But, although he was a man conse- 
crated to the service of God, and even now on his way 
from his turn of office in the temple, the sight of his 
countryman and fellow- worshiper moved in him no 
compassion: he passed by, cold and unconcerned, with- 
out so much as coming near to help or even console 
the unhappy sufferer. 

The expression, " He passed by on the other side," 
marks an intentional turning away and going past on 
the other side, that he might not be moved by a nearer 
view or suffer any sort of detention. We are not in- 
formed what his excuses were, but we may be quite 
sure he had plenty. Those who seek an excuse for 
neglecting the labor of love always find one. He was 
alone; he could neither cure the unfortunate man 
there nor carry him away. To make the attempt 
might bring the robbers down upon himself, and thus 



316 



THE PARABLES OF JESUS. 



he should throw away a good life after a damaged 

• •no. Love saw no excuses for leaving the man lying 
in his blood, for it was no! looking for them, but selfisir- 
lw then) at a glance, aud would have created then* 
in abundance if there had been none at hand. 

''And likewise a Levite, when he was at the place, 
came and looked on him, and passed by on the other 
side." Levites were a class who served at the temple, 
assisting the priests in sacrifices and other services. 
They belonged to the tribe of Levi, which was set 
apart to religion. Priests were of the family of Aaron 
in that tribe. The Levites performed the humbler ser- 
vices of the temple, as cleaning-, carrying fuel and acting 
as choristers. They were also writers, teachers, preachers 
and literati. This Levite also Mas probably returning 
from the temple-service to Jericho when he fell in with 
this wounded man. furiosity led him near, but, though 
he obtained a more exact knowledge of the sufferer's 
helpless condition, he yet passed by without helping 
him, and thus manifested a still greater inhumanity, 
for whilst the first exhibited selfishness instinctively, 
the second did so upon calculation. 

Thus did the priest and the Levite, who made their 
boast in that law which was so careful in pressing the 
(\ut'u< of humanity that twice it had said, "Thou shalt 
not Bee thy brother's ass r his ox fall down by the 
way, and hide thyself from them: thou shalt surely 
help him to lift them up again." Here not a brother's 
ox or his ass, but a brother himself, was lying in his 
blood, and they hid themselves from him. These men 
had no! learned that God "will have mercy rather than 
sacrifice ;" they had not yet felt that to pour oil into 
the wounds of the sufferer is more acceptable to (;<.,! 



THE GOOD SAMARITAN. 317 

than to raise the richest incense or to perform with the 
most mechanical precision all the rites and ceremonies 
of the temple-worship. How prone is religion to be- 
come a religion of rites and ceremonies, of fasting and 
feasting, and not a religion of mercy, of love and of 
goodwill ! 

" But a certain Samaritan, as he journeyed, came 
where he was, and when he saw him, he had com- 
passion on him." The Samaritans sprang from the 
mixture of races that took place at the time of the 
Captivity between the children of Israel who still re- 
mained in their land and the heathenish Assyrians and 
Babylonians who had been there colonized. National 
hatred kept Jews and Samaritans still apart even at 
the time of Christ. That a Samaritan is here represent- 
ed as the deliverer was directed against this national 
bigotry, and was meant to teach that one often finds 
in men from whom nothing is expected more humane 
feeling than in hypocritical believers. The force and 
appositeness of the parable are enhanced by contrasting 
the conduct of the despised Samaritan with men of 
such public reputation as a priest and a Levite. 

How many excuses might this Samaritan have framed 
for neglecting the sufferer before him! He might have 
pleaded the traditional enmity between the Jews and 
Samaritans, and besides that he could ill afford the 
expense or loss of time to which his benevolence sub- 
jected him; that he had reason to apprehend danger 
from robbers lurking in the vicinity; and that, for what- 
ever lie <li<l I'nr the sufferer, he would get no thanks, for 
tin.- mail was ;i Jew, whilst he was a Samaritan. 

But instead of doing this, conquering his prejudices 
and those fears for his safety which, amid such scenes 



318 



THE PARABLES OF JESUS. 



and with such a sight before him, were not unnatural, 
he hasted to the rescue. Be first saw him at a distance 
as lying in his blood, yet living, then had compassion 
on him, then went to him, and bending over the bleeding 
farm applied such remedies as circumstances permitted 
and his skill suggested. Ho closed the lips of the suf- 
ferer's gashes and bound them up, doubtless with strips 
JVom his own garments; then poured in oil and vine, 
a common remedial application at that time for Mounds, 
with which, as a traveler, he seems to have been pro- 
vided—the wine probably to cleanse the wounds, and 
the oil to allay the pain. 

There are many persons who on beginning a good 
work go at it at first with zeal, but, lacking persever- 
ance and loving change, they soon turn to something 
else. But the Samaritan stuck by the cause in which 
he had embarked. He did not bind up and anoint the 
wounds of the man, and then think that his work of 
benevolence was done, but he set him on his own beast 
and brought him to an inn, over rough and steep decliv- 
ities, probably being obliged to sustain and support him 
to prevent his falling from the animal, and took care 
of him. The residue of that day and the whole of the 
following night he attended to the wants of the wound- 
ed man, denying himself the usual repose so necessary 
to a traveler. 

The morning sees his rescued brother better. Now 
he may depart. Yes, but not till he has done all he can 
to make it sure that he be properly cared for till all 
danger is over. He may be a humane enough man, 
the keeper of (his inn, but days will pass before the 
sufferer can safely travel, and it may not be wise to 
count upon (he continuance of his kindness. The 



THE GOOD SAMARITAN. 319 

Samaritan gives the innkeeper enough to keep his 
guest for six or seven days, and tells him that what- 
ever he speeds more will be repaid. Having thus 
done all that the most thoughtful kindness could sug- 
gest to promote and secure recovery, he goes to bid his 
rescued brother farewell. Perhaps those pale lips are 
still unable to articulate his thanks, but that parting 
look in which a heart's whole swelling gratitude goes 
out, — it goes with him and kindles a strange joy. He 
never saw the sun look half so bright, he never saw the 
plain of Jordan look half so fair ; a happier man than 
he never trod the road to Jericho. True, he had lost 
a day, but he had saved a brother; and while many a 
time in after life the look of that stark and bleeding 
body as he first saw it lying on the roadside would 
come to haunt his fancy, ever behind it would there 
come that look of love and gratitude to chase the spec- 
tral form away and fill his heart with light and joy. 

It is difficult to admire enough the wisdom with 
which the Saviour, having brought to an end this 
affecting parable, reverses the question of the lawyer. 
He had asked, " Who is the neighbor to whom I am 
bound to show the service of love ?" but the Lord asks, 
"Who is a neighbor? — he who shows love or he who 
shows it not?" The parable is a reply not to the ques- 
tion, but to the spirit out of which the question proceeded. 
It says, " You ask who is your neighbor. I will show 
you a man who asked not that question, and then your 
own breast shall be judge between you and him which 
had most of the mind of God, which was most truly 
the <1o<t of hi- will, the imitator of his perfections." 

If will he noticed that in his answer the lawyer did 
not mention the name of (he Samaritan, but adopted 



320 THE PARABLES OF .JESUS. 

the circumlocutory phrase. He that showed mercy on 
him. This answer, drawn by our Lord from him, was 
virtually, The Samaritan is my neighbor, since, if this 
man's compassionate service^-to the Jew was such as to 
entitle him, in the lawyer's estimation, to be regarded 
as the -lew's neighbor, then, by a parity of reasoning, 
the conduct of the lawyer to a Samaritan should answer 
to the relationship which he had just acknowledged. 
In other words, the obligation and exercise of kindness 
were to be mutual. Hence our Lord closes with the 
brief but pertinent direction, Go, and do thou likewise. 
Deal with a Samaritan as this Samaritan dealt with a 
.lew, and so will you, Jew and Samaritan, he neighbors. 
AVe ought to account every man our neighbor, though 
a stranger, one of a different sect and persuasion, an ene- 
my or a sinner. Let him be what he will, he is a hu- 
man creature, and as such he is entitled to humanity, to 
direction and instruction if he asks them, and to assist- 
ance if he is in distress. But in representing every 
man of every country as our neighbor, did Christ intend 
to break down all those peculiar regards which spring 
out of intercourse and kind offices, and render our affec- 
tions equal toward all mankind? AW' presume not. 
This is a refinement of modern times. What is called 
the "citizenship of the world" is recommended so as to 
destroy patriotism, and it would destroy all domestic 
ties which are founded upon the same associations. 
The advocates for this system are noted lor their un- 
feelingness. The idea intended to be conveyed by 
Christ seems to he that we are neighbor to every man 
in distress, in danger and liability to suffering, and that 
this ought to operate more powerfully upon our feelings 
of compassion than mere proximity of place. Thus the 



THE GOOD SAMARITAN. 321 

Samaritan was neighbor to the man who fell among 
thieves. He saw his suffering in a nature common to 
them both — suffering an accident which he himself 
might suffer, needing comforts which he himself might 
need — and in the spirit of neighborhood, his proximity 
to the same condition, he relieved him. 

An apostle enjoins sympathy toward persons in suffer- 
ing circumstances as knowing that we ourselves also "are 
in the body." This consideration will always have its 
full effect upon the considerate mind. We are neighbors 
to the distresses of every man. Amidst all the sad vari- 
ety of human woe which comes under our notice what 
kind of distress is there to which any of us can say, 
" We are not liable to it" ? Have we a charter of exemp- 
tion from poverty, from calumny, from ingratitude? Can 
we tell that we shall not outlive our friends and our com- 
forts ? Carry we not about with us the seeds of disease ? 
Do not distressing accidents every day prowl about our 
path ? View the changing scene of things in which you 
live, and say how near are we to every man's distresses, 
however distant our rank. 

Let our liability to suffering teach us sympathy, for 
we ourselves "are yet in the body." But sympathy 
with those who are in temporal distress is by no means 
all that is required of the disciple of Jesus. Wherever 
through the wide world he beholds his fellow-creature 
suffering under the greater and more appalling calamity 
of spiritual distress, bleeding and dying of the wounds 
inflicted by sin, asking, as it were, in piteous wailing, 
whether any man will care for his soul, — there, there too 
he musl give good heed that he is like the Samaritan, 
stranger as he was, rather than as the priest and Levite, 
who by their wicked neglect trampled od the union which 



322 



THE PARABLES OF JESUS. 



binds all mankind in a common brotherhood for mutual 
kindness, benevolence and charity. 

Beyond all question a benevolent spirit I- in conform- 
ity with the best principles of that nature which we Lave 
n ceived from our Creator, and tends t<» promote even the 
persona] happiness and comfort of the benevolent indi- 
vidual. Goodwill to men is sown in our constitution by 
the hands of our Maker, and it will spring up wherever 
it is n..t overborne by prejudice and passion. This is the 
voice of God proclaiming to us, by the very principles 
<>f our frame, that we are, one and all, intended to be 
partakers of each other's fortune, and that it i. L ne will 
of our Father that we should be mutual supports t 
other in the pilgrimage of life. We may differ in acci- 
dental circumstances — in the place that gave us birth, in 
the ceremonies of worship, in the creed we adopt— but 
we agree in many more important particulars. We are 
all children of the same heavenly Father, we are all 
boru of the same image, we are all members of the same 
great community, we are all fellow-travelers in the .-ante 
weary pilgrimage on earth, and we are all expectants of 
the same immortality. 

What, then, follows but that wc should be willing, 
oven at personal sacrifice, to assist each other, overlook- 
ing the trilling differences by which we may be now dis- 
tinguished, and be anxious for each other's happiness and 
comfort? The tender mercies of our heavenlv Father 
extend to all his creatures, and why should our affections 
be confined within a narrow circle? 

Besides, God has so constituted us that the exercise of 
the spirit of benevolence yields satisfaction to ourselves 
in addition to the advantages which it confers on others. 
The sensibilities of virtuous affection have a charm which 



THE GOOD SAMARITAN. 323 

lie who experiences theni -would not exchange for all the 
wealth which the world can bestow. The man of a feel- 
ing heart rejoices ever in the cultivation and exercise of 
these sensibilities. They enable him to participate in 
the joys of every happy man, and when his tears fall at 
the sight of human sorrow they are precious drops which 
abundantly repay his grief. 

As the tender affections are delightful, even in them- 
selves, so are they the source of many solid advantages 
in the intercourse of life. They promote our reputation, 
they ensure the reciprocal affection of our brethren. 
Who is the man that enjoys the goodwill of every neigh- 
bor and is followed to his grave by the lamentations of 
the district, village or city in which he lived ? It is he 
who had a heart to feel the distress of the unfortunate, 
and a hand open to relieve them. " I was eyes to the 
blind, and feet was I to the lame, I was a father to the 
poor, and the cause which I knew not I searched out. 
Therefore, when the young saw me they hid themselves, 
the aged arose and stood up, the blessing of him that 
Mas ready to perish came upon me, and the widow's 
heart sang for joy." Such were the consolations that 
cheered the heart of Job amid the heavy load of his 
afflictions — consolations which were not to perish with 
his body, but to follow him into the land of spirits. 

Then, again, it must be remembered that benevolence 
is the temper of the blessed in heaven, and the more we 
cultivate it here, the nearer Ave here approach to the per- 
feetions of the glorified, the better qualified shall we be 
for their society. Many of our other accomplishments 
and attainments shall leave us on this side of the grave. 
"Whether there be prophecies, they shall fail, whether 
there be tongues, they shall cease, whether there be 



324 THE PARABLES OF JESUS. 

knowledge, it shall vanish away;" but "charity never 
faileth." It will be our song of rejoicing in the house 
of our earthly pilgrimage; it will visit us like an angel 
of mercy on a bed of sickness ; it will support our hearts 
amid the waters of the Jordan of death, and prepare us 
for that happy country where love, harmony and peace 
shall reign for ever. Beneficence is, indeed, one of the 
virtues for which Heaven appears to have reserved the 
richest recompense. The sacred writers seem in difficulty 
to express with exactness the aeceptableness of this virtue 
to God. Listen to Isaiah : "Is not this the fast that I 
have chosen, to deal thy bread to the hungry, and that 
thou bring the poor that are cast out into thy house; 
when thou seest the naked, that thou cover him? then 
shall thy light break forth as the morning, and thy 
righteousness shall go before thee ; the glory of the Lord 
shall follow thee." Listen to Paul: "To do good, and 
to communicate, forget not, for with such sacrifices God 
is well pleased." 

Let us, then, try to catch the spirit of the Good 
Samaritan, and imitate his example. He wasted no 
needless sympathy, he shed no idle tears. There were 
wounds to be dressed ; he put forth his own hand to the 
dressing of them. There Mas a life that might be saved ; 
he set himself to use every method by which it might 
be saved. He gave more than time, more than money ; 
he gave personal service. And that is the true human 
charity that shows itself by prompt, efficient, self-forget- 
ful, self-sacrificing help. It is not those who will weep 
the readiest oven- the sorrow who will do the most to 
relieve it. 'fears will (ill the eye, should iill the eve, 
but the hand of active help will brush them away, that 
the eye may see more clearly what the hand has to do. 



#-TME * IMPORTUNATE * FRIEND. 



"Petitions yet remain, 
Which Heaven may hear, nor deem religion vain. 
Still raise for good the supplicating voice, 
But leave to Heaven the measures and. the choice, 
Safe in His power whose eyes discern afar 
The secret ambush of a specious prayer; 
Implore his aid, in his decisions rest, 
Secure, whate'er he gives, he gives the best." 

28 325 



J And he said unto them, Which of you shall have a friend, and 
shall go unto him at midnight, and say unto him, Friend, lend me 

6 three loaves : For a friend of mine in his journey is come to me, 

J and I hair nothing to set before him ? And he from within shall 
answer and say, Trouble me not : the door is now shut, and my chil- 

8 dren are with me in bed; I cannot rise and give thee, I say unto 
you, Though he will not rise and give him, because he is his friend, 
yet because of his importunity he will rise and give him as many as 
he meedelh. Luke XI. 5-8. 

326 









THE IMPORTUNATE FRIEND. 



T TOW blessed must have been those seasons in which 
-* — ■- the Saviour engaged in prayer with his beloved 
disciples ! On the occasion on which this parable was 
spoken we are told that he prayed, but the name of the 
place is not recorded. After hearing his prayer the 
disciples felt conscious of their own inability to pray. 
They were, like us, compassed with infirmities, and 
knew not what to pray for as they ought. Moved by 
his blessed example, therefore, in the spirit of little 
children they said to their Master, " Teach us to pray ;" 
and in answer to their request he gave that form of 
prayer which has ever since been the treasure of the 
Church — a form so simple that the merest child may 
use it " with the heart and with the understanding 
also," and yet so sublime that the most mature in grace 
and virtue and knowledge need nothing more. 

Having given this form, Jesus proceeded to give 
them further directions upon prayer generally, both in 
the short parable of the Importunate Friend and in 
the direct admonitions that follow. Whilst he teaches 
them how to pray, he also excites and encourages them 
to do so. He argues from the less to the greater, and 
makes the contrast as well as the comparison conduce to 
his aim. If a man indisposed to the thing himself, and 

327 



328 mi: PARABLES OF JESUS. 

even complaining of the application, may yet grant a 
request to importunity, how much more may we hope 
to succeed with God, whose goodness, like his power, 
is infinite ! In this view it^becomes distinguished from 
the similar parable in Luke xviii. 1-8, not merely by 
the form, bul by an essential point of difference. Here 
i1 is prayer for the needs of others in which we are 
bidden to be instant; there it is rather for our own 
needs. 

This parable contains more details characteristic of 
Eastern manners than many similar narratives of greater 
length. The arrival at so late an hour is a most natural 
circumstance, as journeys in the East are in the summer 
months largely performed at night. At that season the 
daily journey of the caravans, which is suspended during 
the heat of the day, terminates at midnight, and to rep- 
resent a solitary stranger, therefore, as arriving at a 
friend's house at such an hour, however unseasonable 
it may seem to us, would appear to the hearers of this 
parable a familiar occurrence. 

The friend at whose house the application was made 
does not seem to have been of high rank or to have had 
a large establishment of servants, for he is represented' as 
excusing himself on the ground that his children were 
with him in bed — an expression which does not mean 
that they were all crowded into the same couch, but 
merely perhaps that they were sleeping in the same 
room with him. It is quite common, amongst people 
in the humbler ranks in the East, for a -whole family 
to occupy the same room during the night. 

The fact that the applicant had nothing to set be- 
fore his friend was no evidence either of poverty or 
want of economical management, for, liberal as is the 



THE IMPORTUNATE FRIEND. 329 

hospitality shown in the East to strangers, the bread, 
of which the greater part of the entertainment al- 
ways consists, has often to be baked after their arrival. 
The traveler's friend, having none with which he could 
treat a respectable guest, and no meal to bake with — 
the grinding of the corn for daily consumption being 
the first work of the morning — applied to a neighbor, 
who, having a family of children, might be in the habit 
of baking a fresh supply of bread at a later hour of the 
day. It was a common practice among the Jews, as it 
is among the Orientals of the present day, to borrow 
bread from each other on any sudden emergency, to be 
repaid the next morning or on the first convenient op- 
portunity. As the loaves were generally thin cakes, 
three being the ordinary allowance of a single person, 
the knowledge of this circumstance will determine the 
reason for limiting the request to that number. The 
continued knocking at the neighbor's door after the 
owner had announced that he and his family had gone 
to bed and did not wish to be disturbed is not the least 
characteristic circumstance in this narrative. It is al- 
most incredible with what importunity a native of the 
East will urge his application for whatever he wants ;_ 
and the result almost always proves successful, as the 
person applied to is glad to grant the petition to get 
rid of his importunities. 

This man, whose house the traveler visited, was 
benevolently disposed toward him. " My friend," says 
he, " is come to me." Though the hour of his arrival 
was unseasonable, still he extended to him a cordial 
welcome, and anxiously strove to minister to his com- 
fort. He appreciated his condition as one who was be- 
nighted and had providentially reached his house, and 



330 



THE 1' Ml Mll.Ks OF JESUS. 



therefore he was not only willing but solicitous to do 

all he could to relieve hi- destitute condition. Are 
there not those about us whom we know to be on their 
journey to the eternal world, who have lost their wav 
in the darkness of -in. and who by their very silence 
make t<» as a most tender and touching appeal ? I- it 
not true, also, that though we have nothing to set before 
the-,' needy and perishing souls, yet we know where the 
Bread of life can he had ? It is ours, therefore, to bear 
them upon our hearts before God, and entreat him to 
bestow what we are unable to give. Humanity — and, 
much more, Christianity— requires this. And the duty 
is the more palpable and obligatory the nearer those 
who need the Bread of life are to us. Intercession 
On behalf of a fellow-sinner ran be of no avail after 
he leaves this world of thick darkness, lint now such 
intercession may prevail. No oue going to God on this 
errand need be afraid of coming to him unseasonably. 
He that keeps Israel slumbers not nor sleeps. Come 
avc early, he is awake ; come we late, even at " mid- 
night," he has not retired to rest; come we to present 
a case on which the dark shadows of aggravated guilt 
have accumulated, still we need not de-pair, knowing 
that we plead with One whose grace is able to make 
scarlet sins as wool, and crimson -ins whiter than 
snow. 

It is of great importance to remember that, as the 
parable intimates, in prayer we may go to God in the 
character of "a friend." There are some who conceive 
of prayer as an overcoming of God's reluctance to give. 
There is reason for fearing that this is the idea which 
many have of it. Such person.-, when thinking of sal- 
vation, conceive of it as purchased from God the Father 



THE IMPORTUNATE FRIEND. 331 

by a price paid to him by the Son, and which he could 
not refuse. The}" forget that it was love on the part 
of the Eternal Father that led him to give his Son to 
die, no less than love on the part of the Son himself to 
die. They forget that the gift of the Saviour was just 
the expression or the exponent of that love, and the mag- 
nitude of the gift was the measure of the original love 
of God. On the same principle precisely these persons 
imagine that in prayer God must first of all be made 
willing to give, forgetting that prayer is, in fact, a lay- 
ing hold of his highest willingness. 

How beautifully and touchingly is this taught by the 
Saviour in the thirteenth verse of this chapter ! — " If 
ye, then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto 
your children, how much more shall your heavenly 
Father give the Holy Spirit to them that ask him !" 
There is nothing more deeply founded in truth than 
the assumption there made. All creatures, by an in- 
stinct of their nature, are characterized by tenderness to 
their young, and this propensity rises in strength ac- 
cording as the order of being is more noble in which it 
is found, until it culminates in man, and shows itself in 
him as perhaps the most ardent and forceful of his affec- 
tions. Man will not turn away with an unfeeling heart 
and unopened hand from the entreaties of his offspring. 
There may, indeed, be occasions on which a parent can- 
not minister gratification or relief. Thus was it with 
Hagar in the wilderness, when, her bread being con- 
sumed and the bottle of water spent, she laid her child 
under one of the shrubs that she might not see his 
death, and went and sat over against him and lifted up 
her voice and wept. Tims was it with the parents o£ 
Moses when the alternative presented to them was to 



332 THE PARABLES OF JESUS. 

Bee him murdered or to lay him in the little ark in the 
flags by the river's brink. Tims was it also in the case 
of the Shunammite's son, whom neither his touching 
complaint to his father, "My head! my head!" nor his" 
being carried to his mother's lap, could deliver from 
the fatal malady with which he had been seized. But 
where it is possible and proper the parent will satisfy 
the demands of his children. "For them," says one 
who sustained and adorned this relation — "for them he 
will make the largest surrenders of ease and time and 
fortune. He will compass sea and land in quest of 
provision for them, and for their sakes nerve himself 
against the buffeting of all the elements, at one time 
adventurously ploughing the ocean in their behalf, and 
at another living for years in the exile and estrange- 
ment of a foreign clime, with naught to soothe him in 
the midst of his fatigues but the imagery of his dear 
and far-distant home." 

Thus is it with earthly parents. So strong, so endur- 
ing, is this propensity of their nature that it will prompt 
them to any reasonable liberality -which will promote 
the happiness of their children, if it rise not to such 
control over them that they will say when death has 
carried them away, even though they have been rebel- 
lious and profligate, "Would God I had died for thee, 
O my sun! my sun!" This is true of parents also, 
notwithstanding their depravity which cleaves to them, 
blinds their judgments, makes them defective in mural 
purity, and tends to make them weary through repeated 
provocations, and selfish, so that they shall feel averse 
to the self-denial to which they have often to be sub- 
jected in order that the wants of their children may be 
supplied. 



THE IMPORTUNATE FRIEND. 333 

Now, as from the parental relation thus blooming 
and fruitful in the wilderness of the human heart, not- 
withstanding the unfriendly soil in which it exists and 
the blighting atmosphere of evil influences with which 
it is surrounded, the Saviour reasons up to our Father 
in heaven to demonstrate his willingness to " give good 
things to them that ask him," how broad and deep a 
foundation does he lay for our confidence in prayer ! 
Who does not feel the touching allusion that is made ? 
Whose heart is not moved with sensibility as memory 
bears him back to the old homestead that is identified 
in his recollections with all that is gentle, loving and 
kind ? Who can forget the parent's eye that beamed 
with affection, and the parent's hand ready to meet each 
uttered want? Who does not remember how readily 
each urged necessity was relieved for him by the guides 
and guardians of his childhood ? 

The Saviour's imagery assures us that there is a 
fondness which far surpasses theirs now beckoning and 
beaming upon us from heaven. It gives us this blessed 
encouragement that, whatever freedom of access a son 
has to an earthly father to ask for the necessaries of 
life, the children of God in applying to him for spiritual 
blessings have more, because their wants are greater; 
because He who gives is wiser and better and more will- 
ing to bestow ; because he has pledged himself by the 
word of his promise; and because the very circum- 
stances <»(' the several natures of God and man, in their 
relation l<> each other, create the moral necessity for 
God to give. If an earthly parent answers the cravings 
of an earthly child, much more will it be the case that 
when :i finite being, bowed down with a sense of want, 
weakness and guilt, conies before his heavenly Father, 



334 THE PARABLES OF JESUS. 

and asks those good gifts which his necessity demands, — 
much more will he answer. It cannot be that the perish- 
ing soul <»!' man should plead for pardon and renewing 
grace, and Infinite Goodness refuse to give. What an 
earthly father will rarely fail to do, though he is evil, 
God will never fail to do, because he is good. 

In this parable we find that delay in answering prayer 
is not its denial. In all such rases God has an ulterior 
object in view more important than the one which the 
petitioner directly desires. Whenever he apparently 
does not hear he tries the faith and patience of the 
believer. There are wisdom and love which we shall 
hereafter adore in God's withholding from us for a time 
the boon which we ask. Such delay increases our con- 
fidence, leads us to a higher appreciation of the gift 
when it is received, and draws us nearer and still nearer 
to the Fountain from which we seek to be supplied. 

"When I was a little child," says an eminent divine, 
" I often stood near a forge and watched a blacksmith 
at work, admiring the skill and the strength of the 
wonder-working man. When two pieces of iron, 
placed in the fire in order to be welded together, became 
red, I thought and said he should take them out and 
join them, but he left them lying still in the fire with- 
out speaking a word. They grew redder, hotter j they 
threw out angry sparks: Now, thought I, he should 
certainly lay them together and strike; but the skillful 
man left them still lying in the fire, and meantime 
fanned it into a fiercer glow. Not till they were white, 
and bending with their own weight, when lifted, like 
lilies on their Stalks — not till they were at the point of 
becoming liquid, did he lay the two pieces alongside of 
each other, and by a lew gentle strokes weld them into 



THE IMPORTUNATE FRIEND. 335 

one. Had he laid them together sooner, however vigor- 
ously he had beaten, they would have fallen asunder in 
his hands. The Lord knows, as we know not, what 
preparation we need in order that we may be brought 
into union with himself. He refuses, delays, disappoints, 
all in wise love, that he may bring the seeker's heart 
up to such a glow of desire as will suffice to unite it 
permanently with his own." 

The importance of importunity in prayer is here in- 
culcated. The poor Mohammedan, in company as in 
solitude, on the mart of commerce or on the muddy 
street, on the slippery rock or in the sandy desert, wher- 
ever he is and before whomsoever he is, drops on his 
knees at sundown to offer his devotions. A traveler who 
was recently exploring the mountains of Northern India 
found a tribe Avhich followed the practice of praying by 
machinery. Certain prayers were placed on a revolving 
cylinder, and as the wheel went round -and the prayer 
came up, each time its face was turned to heaven God 
was supposed to read it. It was as good as spoken by 
living lips. While engaged in his work or passing the 
cylinder at intervals, the worshiper from time to time 
gave it a turn, so as to keep it constantly spinning on its 
axis. Others still more ingenious set the cylinder in the 
run of a stream, that, as it turned like a mill-wheel, 
prayer might be offered day and night continually. Now, 
whilst, of course, we are to shun the lifeless formality 
of such prayers, yet here is a glimmering of what is 
meant by the Scripture exhortations to " be instant in 
prayer " and to " pray always and not faint." We be- 
lieve it is possible to fulfill these injunctions. Our heart 
may be like the sacred altar of the Jews, on which the 
lire never ceased to burn, or like an seolian harp, on 



330 THE PARABLES OF JESUS. 

whose strings, by nighl or day, the wind has but to 
breathe to wake up sweel and plaintive music. 

( )h, how apt we are to taint in <<\\v supplications if we 

receive not s i the blessing-we ask! We are tempted 

to abandon our seeking. Satan whispers, " What profit 
shall you have if you pray unto him?" " Where is God, 
thy Maker, that giveth songs in the night?" and our 
faithless hearts sink under the suggestion. But God is 
pleased with importunity. We honor him thus by the 
estimation in which we show that we arc holding his 
blessing, and by the strong confidence which we indicate 
that Ave are exercising in his covenant promise. Why 
would we ask if we did not prize the favor solicited? 
and why would we persist if we had not faith of final 
success? This earnest entreaty will prevail when that 
of an opposite kind would fail. The Angel of the Lord, 
the great Covenant' Angel, contended with Jacob and 
wrestled with him all the night, yet allowed himself at 
the last to be overcome by him, and left a blessing be- 
hind ; and Jacob thenceforth was Israel — that is, was 
permanently lifted up through that conflict into a higher 
state, marked by that nobler name which thenceforth he 
bore, "for as a prince hast thou power with God and 
with men, and hast prevailed." The Syro-Phoenician 
woman, though kept by Jesus waiting almost hopelessly, 
as far as his disposition was indicated, for the blessing 
which she sought, finally obtained it. God is still the 
same. lie is pleased with our much asking, instead of 
wearied with it. He exhibits to us with joy his people 
as crying unto him day ami night. Man'- life should be 
one unintermitting prayer, lie may not, indeed, and 
need not, always occupy the attitude of supplication, 
neither is he required to merge entirely the active duties 



THE IMPORTUNATE FRIEND. 337 

of the station to which God has appointed him in ser- 
vices of devotion. His habitual frame of soul, however, 
should be one of dependence and desire in the direction 
of heaven, ready, like the expanded flower, to receive 
the cheering light and refreshing shower that will descend 
upon it from above. 

" Because of his importunity he will rise and give him 
as many as he needeth." This is an amazing revelation 
of the manner in which God regards suppliant disciples; 
and the best of it is its truth. The spirit in man that 
will take no denial is God's special delight ; the spirit 
that asks once and ceases he cannot approve. As the 
Lord loveth a cheerful giver, he loveth too an eager, per- 
severing asker. Never does a Christian rise to the due 
appreciation of his privileges and responsibilities unless 
he attains to that sanctified energy of will which presses 
a suit before the throne till God bid him cease to pray. 
It ought to be one of our most firmly-settled convictions 
not only that God hears prayer, but that perseverance 
has peculiar power. No music — not the deep bass of 
the cataract, not the joyful concert of winged tribes, not 
the choir and organ of our sanctuaries, not the loudest, 
longest hallelujahs of earth, not even the songs of 
angels — is so grateful to the ear of the God of Sabaoth 
as the untiring supplications of his children. Impor- 
tunity Mill prevail. Nature herself prompts to this. 
Tin- babe cries till it gets a mother's breast; the power 
of importunity is one of the first lessons a child learns 
and proceeds to practice; the boy keeps hanging on his 
father, harping on the same string, giving him no rest 
or peace, now pleading with winning smiles and now 
with tears, returning after every defeal to renew the 
attack, till, worn out, he yields assent; and thus by im- 



&18 THE PARABLES OF JESUS. 

portunity, in a sense, the weak things of the world con- 
found the mighty, and foolish things the wise. 

W'luit Nature thus teaches, revelation confirms. Ac- 
cording to the divine command, we are to "ask," "seek," 
" Knock." What wonderful word- are these! We are not 
to regard the three rehearsals of the command as mere 
repetitions, for they are more, since to seek is more than 
to ask, and to knock than to seek; and thus, in this 
ascending scale of earnestness, an exhortation is given 
not merely to prayer, but to increasing urgency in 
prayer. If we ask as does the beggar who in his 
palpable destitution at the street-corner extends his 
hand for alms, we are also to seek most earnestly, as 
does the loser of a most precious treasure; and to knock 
most violently, as does the father at the midnight hour 
at the door of the physician whom he summons to the 
bedside of his child that is seized with sudden and 
alarming illness. Tims praying, we shall not, we can- 
not, fail, for so is it promised : "Every one that asketh 
receiveth, and lie that seeketh findeth, and to him that 
knocketh it shall be opened." We often talk of hold- 
ing a man by his word, and if he be an honest man we 
have nothing by which we can hold him more firmly. 
Here we have the assurance of Truth itself. He cannot 
deny himself. Let us therefore take him at his word ; 
and, relying on his engagement, whoever we are, whatever 
be our character and condition, draw near in full assur- 
ance of faith, and be tilled with all joy and peace in 
believing, that we may abound in hope through the 
power of the Holy Ghost. 



*TME*RM*FOOL/# 



'The miser comes, his heart to mammon, sold; 

His life, his hope, his god, his all is gold. 
' To-morrow, and to-morrow,' he will say; 
'Soul, take thine ease, for thou, hast many a day 

Whose smiling dawns -will make thee to rejoice.' 

Hush! Hark the echoes of that awful voice!— 
'Thou fool! This night yield up thy earthly trust!' 

Gaze once again, his treasures are but dust!" 

339 



i6 And he spake a parable unto them, saying, The ground of a certain 

17 rich man brought forth plentifully : And he thought within himself 
saying, What shall I do, because I have no room where to bestow my 

18 fruits? And he said, This will I do; I will pull down mv barns, 
and build greater; and there will I bestow all my fruits and mv 

19 goods. And I will say to my soul, Soul, thou hast much goods laid 

20 Up for many years,- take thine ease, eat, drink, and be merry. But 
God said unto him, Thou fool, this night thy soul shall be required 
of thee; then 'whose shall those things be. which thou hast provided ? 

21 So is he that layeth up treasure for himself, and is not rich 

God. 

Luke xii. 16-21. 
340 



THE RICH FOOL. 



TTTHEN Jesus was instructing his disciples in the 
' * presence of the multitude, he was interrupted by 
a man applying to him with this request: "Speak to 
my brother, that he divide the inheritance with me." 
It seems there was a contention between the two con- 
cerning their proper shares of their common inheritance. 
We do not know which of them was in the right, this 
man or his brother, but very likely he who spoke to 
our Lord was ; certainly, there is not a word in the an- 
swer of Christ that calls in question the justice of his 
claim. But if he was in the right about his property, 
how was the state of his heart? His thoughts were 
engrossed by a perishing inheritance, while Jesus was 
pointing to that which fadeth not away. 

Now, to have complied with this solicitation, our 
Lord well knew, would have been a direct departure 
from the spiritual province which he came to occupy, 
and hence his declination: "Man, who made me a judge 
or a divider over you ?" or, in other words, " I am not 
sent for the purpose of settling earthly transactions." 
But it would not do to dismiss the case with this 
refusal to interfere in it. Here was an instance that 
required instruction and admonition. Manifestly, a cov- 
etous, selfish disposition had taken possession of the ap- 

29 : 341 



342 



THE PARABLES OF JESUS. 



plicant's mind, or he would not have interrupted the 
"words of eternal life" which were issuing from the 
Saviour's mouth in order to promote his petty interests 
— words in which he, as one of the hearers, ought to 
have Celt a deep persona] concern. Jesus therefon 
"Take heed, and beware of covetousness : for a man's 
rasisteth not in the abundance of the tilings which 
he possesseth." 

"The word here rendered 'covetousness' is a peculiar 
and very expressive one; it means the spirit of greed, 
that ever-restless, ever-craving, ever-unsatisfied spirit, 
which, whatever a man has, is ever wanting more, and 
the more he gets still thirsts for more — a pas-ion which 
has a Btrange history: often of honest enough birth, the 
child of forethought, but changing its character rapidly 
with its growth— losing sight of the end in the means, 
till wealth is loved and sought and grasped, not for the 
advantages it confers, the enjoyment it purchases, but 
simply lor itself — to gratify that lust of pos- 
which has seized upon the soul and makes it all its 
own." How much needed, on every side, is the Sa- 
viour's warning against this fearful evil ! It is a word 
more in season for the members of Christian churches 
than an exhortation to beware of theft. We are deceived 
in regard to the empire which covetousness holds among 
men. There is perhaps no sin more ignored by those 
who give themselves up t<» it than this. "No one con-. 
fesses the sin of covetousness," -aid a bishop who had 
long officiated at the confessional. The drunkard cannot 
conceal his infractions of the law of God, the proud man 
even, or the vindictive man, can perceive and condemn 
the passions which govern him; but the covetous man 
scarcely ever knows himself. The object desired by the 



THE RICH FOOL. 343 

drunkard and the adulterer, being bad in itself, they 
are treated as open enemies. It is not so with the love 
of money. Money is good in itself, money is necessary 
for the preservation of life, money is useful even in 
doing good. But how great the danger that it may 
monopolize the heart ! Xo wonder, therefore, that 
Jesus used such emphatic fullness of expression in 
bidding the people to be on their guard against covet- 
ousness, adding as the reason or ground of this injunc- 
tion that riches by no means secure for us, of themselves,' 
a life of satisfaction upon earth, nor do they ensure to 
us eternal blessedness. 

The parable of the Rich Fool is added to inculcate 
still further the warning just noticed, and expose in 
more vivid colors the mournful deceitfulness of riches. 
Before proceeding to its exposition it is well to re- 
member that here, as in all the other narratives of the 
Bible, there is necessity for accurate discrimination. If 
we would not fail to perceive the precise truths which 
they are intended to inculcate, we must not make the 
characters which they represent worse than they are 
described, for this would be to make the delineation 
inapplicable just where it is intended to apply. 

There were some things about this "certain rich 
man " which were not wrong and cannot be condemned. 

He ^as prudent and industrious. In the account 
given of him we find no reason for belief that he was 
unjust or an extortioner; neither that he was a rash 
adventurer whose good fortune, indeed, might enlarge 
himself, but whose failure would be attended to others 
with crushing disaster; neither that he was indolent, 
for he was attentive to his landed estate and diligently 
active in the improvement of it. 



34-4 



THE PARABLES OF JESUS. 



Ee was a rich man. But it is no sin to be rich. 
Cornelius was a rich man, and yet he was not sinful 
because he was bo. AYe read of Gains, who exercised 
hospitality to the saints. Joseph of Arimathaea was a 

wealthy man, and yet he was a good man. It is pos- 
sible to be as poor as Lazarus and to be the most cov- 
etous wretch in Christendom. It is not, as we have 
already seen, what a man has that makes the covctous- 
ness, but it is the concentrating all his thoughts upon 
it, and drawing from it the main elements of his joy, 
his comfort, his satisfaction, his repose. No, the pos- 
sessor of wealth is not sinful. God, as Agur showed 
in his prayer, is the Giver both of poverty and riches. 
This rich man obtained his wealth fairly—" not," as 
Augustine says, " by removing landmarks, not by rob- 
bing the poor, not by overreaching the simple." He 
seems to have been a farmer. And there was an ob- 
vious reason why our Lord chose an individual of this 
vocation. Had he merely brought under our notice the 
case of a wealthy man adding daily to his already large 
stores, a wide margin would have been left us to sup- 
pose that he had been doing this by unfair means. 
Christ was not aiming his rebuke against what is re- 
garded as fraudulent between man and man. What he 
had before him was to illustrate the ease of one who by 
no improper means Mas increasing in riches, but who, 
as they increased, had "set his heart upon them" and 
neglected God. So he tells us that it was not by fraud, 
but by the rains and sun and fertile soil, by cold and 
heat, summer and winter, that the stores of this man 
were continually becoming greater. It was by God's 
blessing that his riches increased, which might have been 
ureal blessing if he had known how to use them. 



THE RICH FOOL. 345 

Again : this man was prosperous in his business. 
The earth acknowledged his culture, and by plentiful 
returns compensated largely his active skill. All his 
calculations were not only realized, but exceeded. The 
sun of prosperity shone brightly upon him. 

Outward prosperity, it is true, is not evidence that a 
man is in favor with God. We cannot judge that men 
are good because their ground brings forth plentifully 
and their merchandise succeeds ; neither can we judge 
that others are bad because their property is swept away 
or their riches have vanished. Here, it is to be feared, 
main- make a fatal mistake. They infer from their suc- 
cess in business that they are in favor with Heaven, for- 
getting that we are not to judge of what we are by what 
God's providence does to us, but by what God's word 
says respecting us. Still, it' is true that prosperity is 
not in itself necessarily sinful, and hence this man could 
not be condemned because his ground produced largely. 

Once more : there was nothing wrong in the fore- 
thought which this man exercised about taking care of 
his fruits. It is a sad thought indeed that anxieties are 
generally in proportion to the amount of our earthly 
possessions. And this fact, that riches and cares are 
inseparably wedded together, ought surely to go far 
to reconcile the poor to their poverty, whatever may 
be the pains, mortifications and inconveniences of that 
condition in life. But then we know of no law which 
forbids that a man shall take a prudent care of his 
property, and see, as his substance increases, that it does 
not .suffer from neglect or waste, even though that care 
should require him to enlarge his buildings for this 
purpose. 

The first fault in this rich man's character was a con- 



346 THE PARABLES OF JESUS. 

trolling selfishness. "He thought within himself." 
How expressive of the internal working of covetousness, 
that dares nol utter itself in words, but that plots its plans 
in the recesses of the heart, away from the sight of men, 
but not away from the eyes of God! "What shall 
I do, because J have no room where to bestow my 
fruits?" Jn proposing this question the man was 
exemplifying the truth that it is not when riches are 
"making to themselves wings " and departing from us 
that we cling to them most, but when they are increas- 
ing in our possession. He was showing what lias been 
so often shown since — that while the drying up of the 
springs of earthly prosperity is often accompanied by 
the opening of the affections toward God, the increase 
which God gives not uufrequently shuts up the heart 
against himself. This man did not ask how best to use 
the means, the talents, God gave him; he did not sit 
down to examine into his duty as a steward of these 
things; lie did not look around him for fitting objects 
on which to spend his wealth. Xo ! The increase 
was to be wholly for himself, for his own comfort and 
luxury. 

" What shall I do?" How well is it said that this 
question was proposed after he had "thought within 
himself"! Surely it was in himself, of himself and 
to himself. Self was its source; self was its end ; 
self was its centre, and self was its circumference. 
" What shall I do?" How many answer- to this 
inquiry might have come back, if only time had been 
given, from many an object of compassion, many an 
orphan, many a widow, many an ignorant family, 
many an avenue for doing good! But no such an- 
swer was wanted by him, and hence he soon reached 



THE RICH FOOL. 347 

the foregone conclusion — as certain to rise in such 
a heart with its ruling selfishness as a spark is to 
fly upward or a stone cast into the air to fall back 
upon the ground : " This will I do : I will pull down 
my barns, and build greater, and there will I bestow 
all my fruits and my goods." This is the turning- 
point, and on it the poor man turns aside into error. 
"When God's goodness was showered upon him in such 
abundance he should have opened his treasures and 
permitted them to flow : for this end his riches had 
been bestowed upon him. When rain from heaven has 
filled a basin on the mountain-top, the reservoir over- 
flows, and so sends down a stream to refresh the valley 
below. It is for similar purposes that God in his 
providential government fills the cup of those who 
stand on the high places of the earth, that they may 
distribute the blessing among those who occupy a lower 
place in the scale of prosperity. But self was this 
man's pole-star: he cared for himself, and for none 
besides. Mark the expression, "all my. fruits and my 
goods " ! Thus is it evident that he had no heart to feel 
for others, no thought or purpose beyond his own 
aggrandizement. Self was his god, for to please him- 
self was practically the chief end of his existence. 

Atheistical independence and ingratitude were also 
bad elements of this man's character. Men in every 
department of labor are dependent upon God for their 
success. What are all our best plans, what are all our 
mosl vigorous exertions, without the blessing of the Al- 
mighty? But it would seem that, of all others, those 
who oughl i" feel this dependence the most (though it is 
in reality not greater in their case than in thai of others) 
are the tillers of the soil. What can they do without 



348 THE PARABLES OF JESUS. 

the refreshing showers and the cheering rays of the sun? 
How helpless are they forced to feel themselves as they 
goand'casl the seed into the ground, and then return 
to their homes to wait for that sprouting and maturing 
of the grain which can only be produced by causes 
over which they have no control — agencies which can 
only be applied by Him who settles the furrows and 
waters the hills and fashions first the blade, then the 
ear, and after that the full corn in the ear! Now, as 
this man belonged to this class of laborers, what an 
appeal to his thankfulness was made by the very fact 
that whilst he Avas sleeping or eating or reading or 
walking, at home or abroad, still were the breezes of 
heaven blowing over his fields, the dews of heaven moist- 
ening his fields, and those numerous agencies at work 
which alone can bring the buried seed to perfection. 

But how was this appeal responded to? Let the 
man's own words answer : " All my fruits and my 
goods." He ignored the providence of that very God 
to whom he was, and to whom he ought to have felt 
himself, indebted. " God was not in all his thoughts." 
He regarded himself in no other light than that which 
the civil law shed around him, forgetting that whilst le- 
gally he could say, "My barns, my goods and my fruits," 
he ought not thus to speak of himself in view of the 
law of God, but to speak of himself as a trustee hav- 
ing these things committed to his stewardship. 

Besides, he looked upon himself as the only party 
capable of deciding how these goods should be stored 
away and for what purpose. He never thinks of con- 
sulting God— no, never, "i will do this and that—/ 
will pull down — I will build, and I will bestow all my 
goods there," and so forth. 



THE RICH FOOL. 349 

Another bad element in this man's character was a 
false view of true enjoyment. He felt a sensual com- 
placency in the possession of fortune. When he looked 
around and surveyed the superabundance which, like so 
many streams, poured in upon him, a glow of unsanc- 
tified complacency seized upon his bosom and flushed 
the very spirit within him. Had he, indeed, amassed 
this treasure by vile or unlawful means ; had his lands 
been wrenched by fraud or violence from their rightful 
owners ; or had his laborers been oppressed or curtailed 
in their reasonable claims, — some painful misgivings 
might have poisoned his self-gratulation. But, as al- 
ready hinted, there is no reason to believe that this man 
was otherwise than honorable in his feelings and up- 
right in his pursuit of gain. His folly seems to have 
been wholly spiritual in its nature, attended in the world 
with no disgrace, and therefore the more perilous to his 
soul. He thought he was now secure against everything 
that could disturb his felicity, and he determined to rest 
from hie labors. 

But, alas ! how sad the mistake which he made in 
regard to what he supposed would be suitable provision 
for his enjoyment ! Everything which God has made 
requires a good suited to its nature. So with the bird; 
it seeks and must have its native air. So with the fish ; 
it exists, and only can exist, in the water. So with the 
body ; it cannot subsist on ideas, but must have earthly 
food. So with the mind ; it must receive suitable nour- 
ishment. Oh, what ignorance^ then, was here! How 
could mere material things satisfy the desires of an 
immortal spirit? How could it be imagined that the 
fruits of the earth, adapted though they are to meet 
many physical necessities, could possibly meel the bound- 



350 THE PARABLES OF JESUS. 

less loDgings of a deathless soul ? How could this man, 
who was wise enough to make money, ever hope to ex- 
tract from wealth light for his understanding, truth for 
his judgment, peace for his conscience, or solid bliss for 
his, immortal desires ? What stupidity ! what infatu- 
ation ! 

And yet, alas ! how many follow this man in his in- 
fatuation, seeking good in the creature and not in the 
Creator, and striving to fill with earth's pleasures a 
mind whose emptiness can alone be filled by God its 
Maker and its proper portion ! Let us never suppose 
for a moment that earthly possessions can satisfy the 
soul. 

Still another element of this rich man's character was 
his miscalculating spirit, He felt as if he could control 
the term of his probation as he controlled his possessions. 
He talks to himself of many years. A long season of 
plenty and enjoyment, he flatters himself, is before him. 
" Be content, be satisfied, be happy. All things are right 
and secure; no interruption shall befall me, no molesta- 
tion shall affect me." " They that trust in their wealth," 
says David, " and boast themselves in the multitude of 
their riches, their inward thought is that their houses 
shall continue for ever, and their dwelling-places to all 
generations." But what is the comment of Scripture on 
this inward delusion? — "Like sheep they are laid in the 
grave, death shall feed on them, and their beauty shall 
consume in the grave." Our own observation has often 
confirmed this truth, but it receives a signal attestation 
in the sequel of the parable. 

Perhaps the man's colloquy with himself had taken 
place on his bed. lie had finished his purposes and 
resolves, and now he had laid him down to think over 



THE RICH FOOL. 351 

his improvements to be commenced on the morrow. Soon 
is he disturbed by the voice of God. He is made to hear 
the announcement, " Thou fool ! this night thy soul shall 
be required of thee, then whose shall those things be 
which thou hast provided ?" Oh, what an interruption 
to his castle-buildings ! what a leveler to his plans ! How 
soon the aspect of the whole scene is« changed ! An hour 
ago the man was surrounded with opulence and abun- 
dance, and lauded perhaps by the vulgar herd as a wise 
man, having most extensive possessions. But now, by 
the whisper that comes from unseen lips and falls in the 
stillness of his chamber upon his ear, he is called a "fool," 
and a summons to go hence — a summons he must obey — 
is placed in his hands. 

What a terrible announcement was that ! " Thy race 
is run, thy probation is ended ; thou art on the verge of 
the eternal world." He may weep, tremble, rage, but 
he must go, and go at once. The call came just when it 
was least to be desired, finding the man in the midst of 
riches which he had long been accumulating, in the midst 
of plans which he had just been forming, and in the 
midst of hopes which he had been fondly cherishing. 
It was an end that in the very method of its announce- 
ment carried with it some expression of the divine dis- 
pleasure. It was by force that he was to be taken away. 

It was a saying of some of the Jewish doctors that 
the angel Gabriel drew out the souls of the righteous by 
a gentle kiss upon their mouths; but not thus gentle was 
the death of the rich fool, for, in the language of Theo- 
phylact, "terrible angels, like pitiless exactors of tribute, 
required of him, as a disobedient debtor, his soul." The 
man had enfleshed that soul, he had embodied it, he had 
made it earth}', and thus had prepared to render its divul- 



352 THE PARABLES OF JESUS. 

sion from the body most hard. He was not as a .ship 
which has Long been waiting, and joyfully, when the Big* 
iial is given, lifts its anchor and makes sail for its des- 
tination, but like the ship which by Bome fierce wind 
is dragged from its moorings and driven furiously to 
perish on the rocks. 

" I I«.w shocking must thy summons be, O Death, 
To him that is at ease in his possessions, 
Who, counting on long years of pleasure here, 
Is quilt- unfurnished for the world to come! 
In that dread moment how the frantic soul 
Eaves round the wall of her clay tenement, 
Runs to each avenue and shrieks for help, 
But shrieks in vain ! How wishfully she looks 
On all she's leaving, now no longer hers ! 
A little longer, yet a little longer! 

Mournful sight ! 
Her eyes weep blood, and every groan 
She heaves is big with horror. But the foe, 
Like a staunch murderer, steady to his purpose, 
Pursues her close through every lane of life, 
Kor misses once the track, but presses on, 
Till, forced at last to the tremendous verge, 
At once she sinks to everlasting rum." 

" So," says our Lord, thus foolish and destitute, even 
though the hour of his awaking from the dream of wis- 
dom and wealth has not yet come, " is " — not " will be," 
for a terrible every-day fact is set forth — " he that lay- 
eth up treasure for himself, and is not rich toward God." 
He who is rich for himself, laying up treasure for liim- 
self, is by so much robbing his real inward life, his life 
in and toward God, of its resources; he is laying up 
store for the flesh, but the spirit, that which God look- 
eth into and searcheth, is stripped of all its riches. 



■THE * FRUITLESS * PIS * TREE.-4 



" God. is much displeased 
That you take with unthankfulness his doing. 
In common, worldly things 'tis called ungrateful 
"With dull unwillingness to repay a debt 
Which with a bounteous hand was kindly lent; 
Much more to be thus opposite •with Heaven, 
For it requires the debt it lent you!" 

30* 353 



6 He spake also this parable ; A certain man had a Jig tree pla7ited 

in his vineyard : and he came and sought fruit thereon, and found 
j none. Then said he unto the dresser of his vineyard, Behold, these 

three years I come seeking fruit on this fig tree, and find none: cut 
8 it down ; why cumbereth it the ground ? And he answering said 

unto him, Lord, let it alone this year also, till I shall dig about it, and 
q dung it : And if it bear fruit, well : and if not, then after that thou 

shall cut it down. 

Luke xiii. 6-9. 
354 



THE FRUITLESS FIG TREE. 



HPHE Lord Jehovah is frequently pictured in Script- 
-*- ure as the lord of a vineyard. In the fifth chap- 
ter of Isaiah the prophet represents him as the pro- 
prietor of a vineyard, and states what great care he had 
bestowed upon it, but because it was unfruitful, or fruit- 
ful only in wild grapes, in briers and thorns, it was to 
be laid waste. Hence, as by the " certain man " in the 
parable now to be considered is meant the Lord of hosts, 
so by the " fig tree " we may understand the Jewish 
nation, which the Lord transplanted out of Egypt into 
the land of Canaan, and from which, when he sought 
fruit, he found none, for when our Saviour came unto 
his own, his own received him not. 

Nor should it be overlooked how significantly typical 
was the figure which Jesus employed to represent the 
rapidly-approaching overthrow of the Jewish nation in 
righteous vengeance for their deep and widespread cor- 
rupt ion and their obstinate impenitence, notwithstand- 
ing the many provisions made by God for their im- 
provement. For, though that fig tree, the Jewish 
nation, has been cut down, the roots are yet left in the 
earth, and the words of Job may be applied to that 
afflicted people: "There is hope of a tree, if it be cut 
down, that it will sprout again, and that the tender 



356 THE PARABLES OF JESUS. 

branch thereof will not erase. Though the root thereof 
wax old in the earth, and the .stock thereof die in the 
ground ; yet through the scent of water it will bud, 
and bring forth boughs like a plant." 

But whilst this parable referred to the Jews as a 
nation, it refers as well to every individual in every 
age and in every country enjoying the means of grace. 
Indeed, there is a personal application made of the 
image which supplies the groundwork of the parable, 
by John the Baptist, when he says : " And now r also 
the axe is laid unto the root of the trees; therefore 
every tree which bringeth not forth good fruit is hewn 
down, and cast into the fire;" and of an image very 
nearly the same by Christ himself in the language, 
" Every branch in me that beareth not fruit he taketh 
away : and every branch that beareth fruit, he purgeth 
it, that it may bring forth more fruit." 

Notice, first, the situation of the tree, the place where 
it stands. It is in God's vineyard, and our Lord tells 
us how it came there. It did not spring up there, nor 
was it brought there by accident : God himself had it 
planted there. 

We are in God's vineyard. We are standing in the 
midst of God's Church, and it is God himself who has 
placed us in it. Our spiritual privileges are not, like 
the air and the light, our natural inheritance, the com- 
mon bounties of God's providence. Look through the 
world : how many of our fellow-creatures can we find 
who are blessed as we are? The heart aches as we 
attempt to answer the question. It is no vineyard, it 
is a wilderness, in which the great mass of our fellow- 
sinners are standing, whereas we, in Christian America, 
arc in a cultivated and fertile field, or rather in a garden 



THE FRUITLESS FIG TREE. 357 

which the Lord has separated from that wilderness and 
set apart for himself. 

Xotice, next, that God requires, and has a right to 
expect, that those who are so highly favored should 
bring forth fruits of a corresponding kind. It is the 
peculiarity of the gospel that privilege precedes duty, 
but it is always taken for granted that duty shall fol- 
low. The wrath of God having been revealed from 
heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of 
men, God has a right to expect that all men should 
repent. Having sent his Son into the world, and hav- 
ing revealed the way of life and salvation, and having 
assured us that there is not a name under heaven by 
which men can be saved but the name of Jesus, he has 
a right to expect that men shall obey, and thus come into 
communion with him. And surely he has a right to 
expect that the professors of the gospel shall bring forth 
fruits meet for repentance. He has a right to expect that 
they will glorify him in their bodies and spirits, which he 
hath redeemed with an inestimable price. 

Is it asked what those fruits are which we are to bring 
forth under the means of grace which we enjoy? In 
general, we find them described in the Bible as the 
" fruits of righteousness " and " the fruit of the Spirit." 
The apostle Paul requires those to whom he had preach- 
ed the gospel to "increase in the knowledge of God, 
walking in the fear of the Lord and in the comfort of 
the Holy Ghost, being filled with the fruits of right- 
eousness, which are to the praise of God by Jesus 
Christ." "And," says he, "the fruit of the Spirit is 
love, joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness, goodness, 
faith, meekness, temperance: against such there is no 
law." The apostle Peter also gives us an account of 



358 THE PARABLES OF JESUS. 

that fruit which God expects of those who enjoy the 
gospel. "Giving all diligence," says he, "add to your 
faith virtue; and to virtue knowledge; and to knowl- 
edge temperance j and to temperance patience; and to 
patience godliness; and to godliness brotherly-kindness; 
and to brotherly-kindness charity. For if these things 
be in you, and abound, they make you that ye shall 
neither be barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of 
our Lord Jesus Christ." It is expected also, be it 
remembered, that persons will abound in these fruits 
in proportion to the means of grace which they have 
enjoyed and to the period of time in which they have 
enjoyed them. 

a Behold, these three years I come seeking fruit on 
this fig tree, and find none." This was the third year 
of raised expectation, and had been preceded, with like 
disappointment, by two annual visitations. It should 
be observed that, however lightly regarded by their sub- 
ject and allowed to pass unimproved, these visitations 
were registered. God comes again and again. He 
searches ; he finds no fruit ; he complains not ; he says 
nothing; he goes away. So true is it that in all the 
dealings of Almighty God with sinners, however these 
may be allowed by us to pass without observation, there 
is a silent but sure process of judgment at work — an 
undercurrent, flowing quietly but steadily, which beam 
on the soul to the destinies of the eternal world. We 
make light, we indulge a sportive fancy, we plunge into 
the absorptions of business or pleasure, we drown com- 
punction in excess; but this undercurrent sets steadily 
in its appointed course. The soul is borne onward to 
the great tribunal, where books arc to be opened and 
where every registry of the past which faith in Christ 



THE FRUITLESS FIG TREE. 359 

has not blotted out is destined to unfold. Oh, where 
are the sinner and the ungodly to appear ? Where is he 
to appear who now scoffs at the visitations of Almighty 
God, who in the natural effect of his crimes loses sight 
of the divine displeasure, who construes the stillness of 
judgment as oversight or disregard of his impenitence ? 
One of the most afflictive spectacles which has ever 
pained the heart of the godly is that of a sinner awaken- 
ing on the margin of eternity to his guilt and clanger. 
Hitherto he had silenced in day-dreams the misgivings 
of the soul which lead to serious inquiry, but now he is 
awakened to the most fearful convictions of his swift 
and unalterable destinies. 

How do ice bear in mind these silent but affecting vis- 
itations of the Lord to his vineyard ? They came not 
with observation. Some of them were joyous to our 
hearts ; others are even now more painful in the remem- 
brance than at the time. Some of them affected our out- 
ward condition in life ; others reached deeper and stirred 
chords of emotion which had long slumbered. Many 
have held them only as joys or sorrows springing out 
of the earth, while new scenes and rarer incidents have 
soon banished from the mind every vestige of their re- 
membrance. But how differently in our parable are 
these visitations regarded! The visitor was He who is 
unseen by the natural eye, discernible only by faith. It 
was God, now shrouded in providence, now in grace, with 
whom we had to do. He it was who came seeking the 
fruits of righteousness that are by Jesus Christ, to his 
own praise and glory. He it was who, surely with no 
unreasonable expectations, came again and again to find 
something answerable to the grace and mere)' so largely 
expended upon the tree. 



360 THE PARABLES OF JESUS. 

"Cut it down; why cumbereth it the ground?" 
Though the "three years" primarily mean the ap- 
pointed time which God had allowed the Jewish nation 
in which to bring forth fruits^ meet for repentance, before 
the sceptre should depart from Judah and the national 
polity be destroyed, yet the parable exhibits a law and 
a limit observed in the dispensations of Providence 
which should overwhelm with terror all who possess 
spiritual privileges without improving them. Every 
man has a certain time of probation allotted to him 
wherein he is required to work the work of Him who 
sent him, and to bring forth the fruits of righteousn<». 
There is a time to every purpose under the heaven, and 
to us now is the accepted time, now is the day of salva- 
tion. If we remain ignorant of the day of our merci- 
ful visitation, if we despise the riches of God's grace, 
if we persevere in our alienation from him, and obsti- 
nately continue in sin, the advantages which we now 
possess will be taken away from us; the utmost term 
of God's patience will expire ; the Holy Spirit, grieved, 
will strive no longer with us ; we shall be given 
over to a reprobate mind. The length of time that 
has been allowed us to produce fruit while we still 
continue barren is too probable an indication that we 
shall never bring forth fruit. As the owner of the 
vineyard said of the fig tree, " Cut it down, why cum- 
bereth it the ground?" so there is reason to fear it will 
be said of us, " Cast ye the unprofitable servant into 
outer darkness, there shall be weeping, and Availing, and 
gnashing of teeth." The fig tree was not only barren, but 
a "cumberer of the ground." It occupied that place in 
the vineyard which was intended for a fruitful tree, and 
therefore it was necessary that it should be removed 



THE FRUITLESS FIG TREE. 361 

Not only are the lives of unconverted men useless as 
regards their souls, but they are also cumberers or 
wasters of the ground. Their lives and their influence 
prove a hindrance to the gospel. They oppose its prog- 
ress in their own hearts, and throw the whole weight 
of their example upon the side of the world and the 
opposers of God. Every unrenewed man virtually 
declares that he is opposed to the religion of Jesus 
Christ. This is the language of his daily life. This 
may seem a harsh judgment, but it is only plain Bible 
truth. 

Observe next the intercession of the vine-dresser: 
" Lord, let it alone this year also, till I shall dig about it, 
and dung it: and if it bear fruit, well : and if not, then 
after that thou shalt cut it down." Whose language 
is this? It is the language of a Christian in favor of 
an irreligious friend or relative — of a father pleading 
for a child, a sister for a brother, a wife for a husband — 
all saying with Esther, " How can I bear the destruction 
of my kindred?" It is the language of a minister 
pleading for his people. Such a man not only preaches, 
but prays. He knows what it is to weep in secret for 
their unbelief, and he engages to use renewed and in- 
creasing diligence in future. Above all, it is the lan- 
guage of Jesus, the Mediator of the New Covenant, 
tin' Mediator between God and man. He makes inter- 
ee— ion for the transgressors; he prayed for his niur- 
derers even in death : " Father, forgive them ; for they 
know not what they do." 

First: lie pleads for the suspension of the stroke: 
" Lei it alone this year also." Thou hast borne with 
il Ion-. I own, already ; oh, hear with it a little longer. 
And why i- lie so desirous of sparing the sinner a little 



362 THE PARABLES OF JESUS. 

longer in this world ? Because in order to our having 
the grace of repentance it is necessary that we should 
have space for repentance ; because while there is life 
there is hope. 

Secondly: He engages to use additional means to pro- 
dace fertility : " Till 1 shall dig about it and dung it." 
It is as if he had said, " Leave this sinner in my hands 
one year more. I have sent him warnings, but I will 
send him now plainer and louder warnings. I have 
visited him with afflictions ; I will visit him now with 
sharper and more cutting sorrows. The spade shall 
go deeper; it shall disturb the man's very roots. His 
conscience too I have disquieted, but now I will make 
his conscience a daily scourge to him. I have told 
him of my great salvation ; I have offered it to him 
times out of number, without money or price : he shall 
hear of it in the coming year yet more often ; it shall 
be pressed on his acceptance with greater earnestness 
and force. Lord, let him alone. It may be that he 
will at last bring forth the fruits thou hast so long 
desired of him." 

Third: Here is the supposition of future produce: 
" If it bear fruit, well." The word well is not in the 
original : there we find nothing but an awful pause. 
li' it bear fruit — " Then" it might be said, " thy de- 
sign will be fulfilled, my prayer will be answered, the 
tree will be continued." Our translators have prop- 
erly enough supplied the word well. Well for the 
owner: "for herein is my Father glorified, that ye 
bear much fruit." Well for the vine-dresser, as his 
labors will be rewarded. Well for the vineyard : it 
will be adorned and enriched where it was cumbered 
before. Well for the tree itself, as it will escape the 



THE FRUITLESS FIG TREE. 363 

punishment of barrenness and obtain the blessing of 
fruitf illness. 

Fourthly : Here is the doom of final impenitence : 
" If not — then, after that, thou shalt cut it down." 
If all these means prove ineffectual, if it still continues 
unfruitful, it is fit for nothing but the fire ; yet let not 
my hand be upon it. I have interceded for it ; I have 
been at much pains about it ; I would have rejoiced to 
see it bearing fruit : even yet I cannot put forth my 
hand against it. But it is a cumberer of the ground ; 
its presence is injurious to the fruitful trees ; the at- 
tentions lavished upon it will be much more profitably 
bestowed upon them ; and therefore " thou shalt cut it 
down." 

There seems to be something very fearful in this 
language. Who is it that promises here to acquiesce 
after a little in the entire destruction of every unfruit- 
ful hearer of God's truth ? It is none other than He 
who has shed his heart's blood for our salvation, and 
who has all our life long been pleading that we may 
be spared. It is painful to have a kind earthly friend 
give us up, but to be given up, and given up to certain 
destruction, by the blessed Jesus, the kindest of all 
friends — one who bears with and loves us as none but 
himself can bear and love, — think what we will of it, 
there is something appalling in this. It is like a father 
who has cherished fondly a son, a worthless son, while 
all around have been calling out for justice on him; 
it is like that father's being at last forced to say, "I 
can hold out no longer; lean do no more. Let jus- 
tice have him." 

"After that thou shalt cut it down." When Jesus 
letfi a sinner go, who shall lake him up? But there 



364 THE PARABLES OF JESUS. 

is love even in this last stern word. Love intercedes 
for a time of trial, an opportunity of turning; and 
love too, after securing sufficient opportunity, ! 
its hold and leaves all hopeless beyond. It is the ter- 
rible concession, "thou shalt cut it down," issuing from 
the Intercessor's lips, that gives power to the invitation, 
" Now is the accepted time." To warn me now that 
if I let the day of grace run waste even Jesus on the 
morning of the judgment will not plead for me any- 
more, is surely the most effectual means of urging me 
to close with his oiler to-day. 

Then, reader, pause and consider that if the Saviour's 
love has been recklessly slighted, the day in which the 
terrible consequences of this shall appear will be spe- 
cially marked by the presence of the Lord of the vine- 
yard once more— not now as one who gave all he had 
in order to purchase the vineyard and reclaim it from 
desolation — not now as one who may be, for another 
year, induced to pause in his final decision ; but on the 
throne, with the books opened before him, and the 
very hand that was nailed on the cross in redeeming 
love will fall with resistless, terrible weight on the 
barren fig tree, as the voice of Him whose gentlest 
whisper is love itself shall be heard, " Out it down. 
why eurnbereth it the growndt" 

Ah! wait not for that day. Such waiting will be 
fatal. Rise and call upon God. Seek Christ as your 
Saviour. Seek- him in earnest ; seek him as your only 
refuge; seek him as one ought to seek him who has 
long neglected him, but who has been spared to seek 
him at last. 



-4-THE* SEEM 1 * SUPPER.-*- 



"The gospel's glorious hope, 
Its rule of purity, its eye of prayer, 
Its fort of firmness on temptation's steep, 
Its bark that fails not 'mid. the storm of death, 
He spread before them, and with gentlest tone, 
Such as a brother to his sister breathes — 
His little sister, simple and "untaught— 
Did urge them to the shelter of that ark 
"Which rides the -wrathful deluge." 

31 * 365 



/,- And -when one of the in that sat at meat with him heard these 

things, he said unto him, Blessed is he that shall eat bread in the 

dem of God. Then said he unto him, A certain man made a 

' nipper, and bade many : And sent his servant at supper-time 

to say to them that -were bidden, Come ; for all things are now ready. 

18 And they all with one cotisent began to make excuse. The first said 

unto him, I have bought a piece of ground, and I must needs go and 

ig sec it: T pray thee have me excused. And another said, I have 

bought five yoke of oxen, and I go to prove them : I pray thee have 

20 me excused. And another said, I have married a wife, and tliere- 

21 fore I cannot come. So that servant came, and showed his lord 
these things. Then the master of the house being angry said to his 
servant, Go out quickly into the streets and lanes of the city, and 
bring in hither the poor, and the maimed, and the halt, and the 

22 blind. And the servant said, Lord, it is done as thou hast com- 

23 manded, and yet there is room. And the Lord said unto the ser- 
vant, Go out into the highways and hedges, and compel them to 

24 come in, that my house may be filled. For I say unto you, Thai 
none of those men which were bidden shall taste of tny supper. 

Luke xiv. 15-24. 
306 



THE GREAT SUPPER. 



"TV /TAN has two appetites, or two great necessities. 
-lV-*- AYe not only need bread for the body that this 
outward medium of communication with the outward 
world may be adequate to its demands, but we need 
also that nutriment for our immortal souls, the absence 
of which w-ill not be their annihilation, but their 
pining and conscious agony throughout the ages that 
are to come. It must be regarded as a strong evidence 
of God's unwillingness that any shall perish that we 
are so frequently reminded in the Scriptures of these 
spiritual wants, and of the provision which has been 
made for them under the attractive symbol of a 
feast. 

The word "supper" in this parable is not to be 
pressed. The original word thus rendered denotes a 
banquet ; hence it is not a warrantable inference which 
some have drawn that because supper takes place at 
evening, so it was in the evening of time, the last 
hour, that Christ came and invited men to the fullness 
of gospel blessings. A great feast, and nothing more, 
is signified. 

The preparation of this feast has its ground in the 
love of God. How appropriately is it denominated 
"great"! Wlint do we need that is not here to be 

367 



368 THE PARABLES OF JESUS. 

found? Is it plenitude? Here we have it. Wo 
read of "abundant mercy," of " plenteous redemption," 
of a Saviour "full of grace and truth," of "all the 
fullness of God." Is it variety? Here we have it. 
Hece is light for our darkness, righteousness for our 
guilt, strength for our weakness, renovation for the 
heart, peace for the conscience, the supply of the 
Spirit, the comforts of the Holy Ghost. Is it rich- 
ness of entertainment ? What else can be the meaning 
of the expressions, "a feast of fat things, a feast of 
wines on the lees, of fat things full of marrow, of 
wines on the lees well refined " ? God prepares dainties 
for his guests, and they are all supreme in their kind, 
and infinitely expensive. The Jews did cat "angels' 
food," but what was the manna compared with the 
Bread of life? He that eateth of this Bread shall 
live for ever. "Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, 
neither have entered into the heart of man, the things 
which God hath prepared for them that love him." 
Is it fellowship? A feast is not a private meal, but 
an entertainment designed to promote social intercourse 
and gratification. We are not solitary partakers, but 
have companions the most agreeable and excellent and 
numerous. We sit down with Abraham and Isaac and 
Jacob, with prophets and apostles, with the noble army 
of martyrs, with the general assembly and Church of 
the first-born, whose names are written in heaven. Is 
il enjoyment? A man at a feast discharges himself 
from anxieties and gives up himself to pleasure and 
delight. "Joy becomes a feast," and is promoted by 
it. But no pleasure, no delight, can resemble that 
which results from an experience of divine grace. 
" Blessed is the people that know the joyful sound." 



THE GREAT SUPPER. 369 

Observe the invitation to partake of this provision. 
It was general ; he " bade many." The feast was 
"prepared for all people." Mankind had been in- 
vited by the works of creation, by the dispensations 
of God's providence, by the light of reason and con- 
science, by the secret influences of the Spirit ; and the 
whole nation of the Jews had been especially and par- 
ticularly invited by his servants the prophets. After- 
ward came John the Baptist, the harbinger of the 
Messiah, and the Messiah himself, with the same in- 
vitation. Nor has this bidding been hushed by the 
lapse of eighteen centuries. Jesus still bids many, just 
as truly, as really, as if he were by our side and was 
heard saying, " Whosoever will, let him take of the 
water of life freely." 

There need be no surprise that, after an invitation 
was given to the supper, servants were sent forth " at 
supper-time to say to them that were bidden, Come, 
for all things are now ready." This is in strict ac- 
cordance with Eastern custom. Servants having gone 
from house to house, and returned with assurance 
from the invited friends of their intention to come, a 
messenger is again despatched for them at the appoint- 
ed time to inform them that all the preparations for the 
banquet are completed. 

We are not to suppose that our Lord meant absolutely 
that all the leading men among the Pharisees (with 
whom he was then chiefly dealing) "began to make 
excuse." There may have been some exceptions — such 
as Nicodemus, for example. But these were so rare, 
mill bo great was the variety of feeling existing in in- 
dividuals to whom (Ik.' message of (lie gospel came, that 
Chrisl was justified in grouping them in one class under 



370 THE PARABLES OF JESUS. 

this general character. Neither are we to understand 
by the phrase, "with one consent," that the parties 
met and consulted together regarding the terms of 
mswers with a view of insulting their entertainer, 
was no concerted action on their part. The ser- 
vant saw them separately, and received their answers. 
The meaning is, that with one voice, or unanimously, 
they excused themselves. The probability is, as already 
hinted, that they accepted the first invitation, gave no 
intimation that they intended to decline, but when the 
moment arrived to be present they were unwilling to 
go. Let it be observed that none of these men gave a 
plain and flat denial ; they simply "made excuse," or 
begged off. They acknowledged the necessity of an 
excuse in some manner plausible, and thereby indirectly 
established the fact that they were under obligation to 
appear. It is to the honor of Christianity that its claims 
are denied only by a very few bold, bad men. The 
great mass of mankind admit that they are bound to 
consecrate themselves to the service of God and accept 
the salvation revealed in the gospel, and hence they only 
p,sk to be excused from attending to the matter now. 
Thus in the very form of their request they recognize 
the obligation of the duty the performance of which 
they ask permission to delay; thus, also, they pay a 
just and honorable tribute to the gospel — a tribute all 
the more to be prized, too, because as yet they have not, 
and are not willing to have, any personal interest in its 
admitted and inestimable blessings. 

Tn relation to the reasons assigned by these men for 
absenting themselves from the feast let the following 
things be observed : 

1. These excuses, though variant in form, were the 



THE GREAT SUPPER. 371 

same in substance and origin. They were all taken 
from one carnal instinct. As birds of the same species 
build their nests of the same material and the same 
form without deliberation or concert, so the carnal 
mind, being in its own nature enmity against God, 
produces, wherever it operates, substantially the same 
fruits. In an alienated heart there is an unwilling- 
ness to be or to abide near to God, and there is con- 
sequently a great tendency to build up innumerable 
partition-walls to shield the conscience from the glances 
of his holiness. This may be illustrated in the fol- 
lowing manner : 

We are invited to a neighbor's house : we do not like 
to go, and we determine that we will not go. Forthwith 
our wits go to work to discover an excuse, and we soon 
find that which we seek for. We must travel on busi- 
ness that day, or some other excuse equally convenient 
and plausible occurs. We are invited to the house of 
another neighbor ; difficulties unforeseen spring up, but, 
being bent on accepting this invitation, we brush them 
all aside, and continue to reserve the evening for the 
company that we love. It is not to be doubted that 
the grand reason why men do not become Christians 
lies in the depravity of the heart. All who have 
yielded to the divine claims have felt the power of this 
native opposition to holiness, and have been willing to 
confess that in their case this was the reason why they 
did not sooner yield to God. 

2. Times mosl seasonable Cor grace and most' urgent 
Calls of worldly business often meet together. These 

men alleged pressing engagements just when the time 
for attendance ut the feast had arrived. Often when 
God's Spirit presses a call to salvation on a man's 



372 



THE PARABLES OF JESUS. 



conscience with special power, it so happens, as he says, 
thai there is some worldly interesl urgently demand- 
ing his attention. The "convenient season" has not 
yel come. 

3. There was an ascending scale of contumacy in 
these men, similar to that in the bearing of* the guests 
in the parable related by Matthew, some of whom made 
light of the message, and others killed the messengers. 
The evil did not grow to the same enormous height, but 
there was the same ascending scale. The first man had 
"bought a piece of ground/' and "he must needs go and 
see it." He pleads the necessity of his case. He is sorry 
not to attend, but he has what is more urgent, as lie 
thinks, on hand. The second says, "I have bought five 
yoke of oxen, and I go to prove them." This man does 
not plead the necessity of the case as the other. He goes 
to prove his yoke of oxen simply because he chooses to 
do this rather than go to the feast. The third says, " I 
have married a wife, and therefore I cannot come." This 
is a rude, point-blank refusal. A sinner's experience in 
rejecting the gospel passes through these various stages. 
First, he walks in the counsel of the ungodly, then stands 
in the way of sinners, then sits in the scat of the scorn- 
ful. The young man who reaches the period of life 
that places him beyond parental control and sends him 
into secular pursuits, as he feels the religious training 
of his early years still lingering about him will plead 
something for his neglect of personal Christianity that 
seems to justify it ; but if he be not careful he will find 
himself after a while, when the world has practiced upon 
him its treacherous arts, unwilling to assign any reason 
for walking in the broad road that leads to death. Still 
farther on in his history, as the cradle-hymns and scenes 



THE GREAT SUPPER. 373 

of worship in the old mansion fade from his heart, he 
will surprise no one if, in departing from God, he also 
becomes bold enough to ask God to depart from him. 

4. All these excuses were based on things lawful in 
themselves. It is not sinful for a man to buy property 
or carry on business or enter into the matrimonial rela- 
tion, but it is sinful to be controlled by these things so 
as to let them hinder us from coming to the gospel feast. 
In point of fact, acts and habits of positive vice keep 
many back from this feast, but (as has well been said) 
it is not with these cases that the parable deals ; and if 
we overlook this we shall miss half the value of the 
lesson it teaches. The lesson here is not, " A drunkard 
shall not inherit the kingdom of heaven," but, "How 
shall we escape if we neglect so great salvation?" 
More persons, perhaps, are ruined by the abuse of 
lawful things than by indulgence in practices inhe- 
rently vicious. When the material of the temptation 
is lawful and honorable the temptation is less suspected 
and the tempted is more easily thrown off his guard. 
Let the field and the oxen be bought and used, and the 
affections of the family be cherished, but woe to the man 
who permits these seemly plants to grow so rank that the 
soul's life shall be overlaid beneath their weight! 

5. All these excuses were false. It is not likely that 
the men who bought the ground and the oxen would 
have done so without seeing and trying them before the 
purchase; they were too sagacious for that. Their ex- 
cuses were mere pretexts for evading what did not suit, 
their taste. The same thing is true of him who had 
"married a wife." According to the Levitical law, this 
reason of his would have been a sufficient one why lie 
should not have none to the battle, hut it was none why 



374 THE PARABLES OF JESUS. 

he should not come the feast Even admitting, however, 
that these excuses were not really false in themselves, it is 
far more than likely that a false use was made of them. 
As it is true in the highest matters, as well as in lower, 
that "where there's a will there's a way," it seems scarce- 
ly to admit of a doubt that these men gave the excuses 
which they did to conceal others which they did not wish 
to offer. The real reason why men do not become Chris- 
tians is certainly not always avowed, and men are strongly 
tempted to suggest others. A man that is proud or sen- 
sual or ambitious or profane, or who has embarked in 
some yet unexecuted plan of iniquity, would be slow to 
avow these reasons for not becoming a disciple of Christ, 
though these may be in fact the real causes. He would 
be much more likely to assign reasons plausible or diffi- 
cult to deny. 

6. Even if these excuses were neither false nor falsely 
applied, it is evident that they were grounded in mis- 
take. The first was that of a man whose heart was 
elate with the acquisition of possessions. The second 
was that of a man who was careful and anxious about 
his business. The third was the domestic man's excuse 
— the excuse of the father, mother, sister, brother, son, 
daughter, who have so many cares and anxieties about 
their home as to have no time for religion. Now, in 
all these excuses it was sadly forgotten by those who 
presented them that the admission of religion into all 
their concerns, instead of adding to the load, would 
positively lighten it — instead of making them less 
active, would have made them more so; for no man 
walks his fields or treads his floor with so elastic a 
footstep as he who sees God's goodness and presence 
over all. No man transacts t\ic world's business with 



THE GREAT SUPPER. 375 

so bounding a heart as he who knows that God is his 
Father and that his strength is made perfect in weak- 
ness. jNo home is lighted up with so beautiful a halo 
as that whose day begins with prayer and ends with 
praise, and where Christ is all and in all. 

Well would it be for all men who are asking to be 
excused from becoming Christians to reflect that their 
request rests on an error. They are acting as if re- 
ligion consisted in poverty and disgrace, anguish of 
spirit and remorse, the loss of the favor of friends and 
of the world. But it is of a directly opposite character. 
It is the hope of heaven through Jesus Christ. It is 
loving God and keeping his commandments. It is 
peace of mind, support in trial, consolation on a bed 
of death and the prospect of immortal glory beyond. 
It is that which is fitted to make a man more useful, 
respected and beloved in life, remembered with deeper 
affection when he is dead, and honored for ever in 
heaven. It is the brightest ornament of his character 
while living, and the sweetest consolation to his friends 
when his body is slumbering in the tomb and his soul 
is shining in the realms of glory. It is surely, then, a 
mistake for men (whether they know it or not) to ask 
to be excused from partaking of these privileges and 
enjoying these inestimable blessings. 

"So that servant came, and showed his lord these 
things." The slighting and neglect of the invitation 
were laid before the master of the house. Ministers 
must lay before their Lord their good or bad success. 
They musl do it now at the throne of grace. If they 
have good success and sec the fruit of their labor, they 
musl go to God with thanksgivings, and if they labor 
in vain fchey must go to him with complaints. They 



376 



THE PARABLES OF JESUS. 



will do it hereafter at the judgment-seat of Chrwfc; 
there they will be produced as witnesses against those 
who persist in unbelief, to prove that they were fairly 
invited, and as witnesses for^those that accept the calL 

"Then the master of the house, being angry, said to 
his servant, Go out quickly into the streets and lanes 
of the city, and bring in hither the poor, and the 
maimed, and the halt, and the blind." The righteous 
displeasure of God toward the conduct of the guests 
shows his earnest desire for their welfare, the unsatis- 
factoriness of all their excuses, and the justness of his 
expectation that the invited would accept the invitation. 

In the descriptive words which the Saviour here em- 
ploys there would seem to be a distinct reminiscence of 
the precept which he had just before given to him at 
Avhose table he was sitting, "Call thou the poor, the 
maimed, the lame, the blind." He would encourage 
him to this by showing him that it is even thus with 
the great Giver of the heavenly feast. He calls the 
spiritually sick, the spiritually needy, while the rich in 
their own merits at once exclude themselves and are 
excluded by him. He calls these poor to sit down at 
his table. The people whom the Pharisees accounted 
cursed, the despised and outcasts of the nation, the pub- 
licans and sinners, they should enter into the kingdom 
of God before the great, the wise, the proud— before 
those who thanked God they were not as other men. 
Go out quickly. The case is too urgent to admit of 
delay. Without immediate provision the poor outcastB 
will perish; therefore make haste to find them out 
wherever they lie, and think it no hardship or indig- 
nity to you to go to the meanest places in quest of 
them. Go through the streets and elleys of the city, 



THE GREAT SUPPER. . 377 

and search the hedges and highways in the country, 
and bring them in. Urge them to come, insist upon 
their compliance, take no denial. Bring them in hither 
— hither, into my favor; hither, into my Church, the 
apartment appointed for the celebration of this enter- 
tainment; hither, into the society of the most honor- 
able guests and into a participation of the richest bless- 
ings. Bring them in hither, 'poor, maimed, halt, blind, 
as they are. They are all welcome. Him that cometh 
unto me, though clothed in rags and destitute of all 
things, I will in no wise cast oat. Thus, this parable is 
prophetical as well as historical. It contemplates the 
extension of the kingdom of God to the whole world, 
and spiritually directs the gospel invitations to be car- 
ried to the lowest strata, and to be brought in contact 
with the outermost circles of human society. 

The command of the Lord was instantly obeyed by 
his ministering servant, and when he returned he said, 
" It is done as thou hast commanded, and yet there is 
room." Blessed be God, we are yet lingering where 
these precious words fall upon our ears ! There is 
room for us in the Saviour's sacrifice, for his blood 
cleanseth from all sin all that trust in him. There is 
room for us in the Father's bosom ; he waits to welcome 
and receive us. There is room for us all in heaven ; 
there are harps that are not yet touched ; there are 
mansions that are not yet full of happy tenantry. 

" All things are ready." It is not a brand of repro- 
bation upon any man's brow that keeps him from Jesus, 
for there is an invitation of welcome lying at eveiy 
man's door, and if any find their everlasting abode to 
be in the depths of ruin, they will never feel that they 
oould not gel lo heaven because there was no room, but 



378 



THE PARABLES OF JESUS. 



solely that they would not go to heaven, because they 
loved sin better than holiness, the world better than 
Christ. The grand amnesty that is to be proclaimed 
from the pulpit every time- it is entered is that God 
waits for men, that they have not to wait for him, and 
that there is room for all who are willing to be saved 
on his terms. 

Why was it declared that none of the men who first 
were bidden should taste of the supper? Had they no* 
refused to come ? What need, then, was there to affirm 
that they should not come ? We are to see in this dec- 
laration an intimation that a time would arrive when 
they who had made excuses would repent of their folly 
and seek to be admitted to the feast. But they would 
find the door shut against them. When they knocked 
they would hear a voice within, saying, " I know you 
not." 

So will it be with the despiser of Christ and his 
gospel : he will change his mind when he beholds afar 
off the glories of the blessed in the kingdom of God. 
When all his earthly delights have perished he will wish 
for a place at the heavenly banquet, but he will find that 
no place is reserved for him among the happy guests. 
Oh, what will then be the bitterness of his disappoint- 
ment and the agony of his regret ! Terribly does our 
Lord describe the final condition of those who had 
trifled away their day of grace, when he says, "There 
shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth, when ye shall 
see Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob, and all the proph- 
ets, in the kingdom of God, and you yourselves thrust 
out" 



*THE*LOgT*SffiEP,* 



' There were ninety-and-nine that safely lay 

In the shelter of the fold, 
But one was out on the hills away, 

Far off from the gates of gold— 
Away on the mountains wild and bare, 
Away from the tender Shepherd's eare. 

' Lord, thou hast here thy ninety-and-nine ; 

Are they not enough for thee?' 
But the Shepherd made answer: ' 'Tis of mine 

Has wandered away from me ; 
And, although the road be rough and steep, 
I go to the desert to find my sheep.' 

' But none of the ransomed ever knew 

How deep were the waters crossed, 
Nor how dark was the night that the Lord passed through 

Ere he found his sheep that -was lost. 
Out in the desert he heard its ery— 
Sick and helpless, and ready to die. 

( Lord, whence are those blood-drops all the way 

That mark out the mountain's track?' 
'They were shed for one -who had gone astray 

Ere the Shepherd could bring him back.' 
'Lord, whence are thy hands so rent and torn?' 
'They are pierced to-night by many a thorn.' 

1 But all through the mountains, thunder-riven, 

And up from the rocky steep, 
There rose a ery to the gate of heaven : 

'Rejoice; I have found my sheep!' 
And the angels echoed around the throne, 
'Rejoice, for the Lord brings back his own!'" 

379 



j, 4 And he spake this parable unto them, saying, What man of you, 
having an hundred sheep, if he lose one of them, doth not leave the 
ninety-and-nine in the wilderness, and go after that which is lost, 

j until he find it ? And when he hath found it, he layeth it on his 

6 shoulders, rejoicing. And when he cometh home, he calleth together 
his friends and neighbors, saying unto them, Rejoice, with me; for I 

7 have found my sheep which was lost. I say unto you, that likewise 
joy shall be in heaven over one sinner that repenteth, more than over 
ninety-and-nine just persons, which need no repentance. 

Luke xv. 3-7. 



THE LOST SHEEP. 



r I ^HE gospel, in all its parts and provisions, is a mani- 
-*- festation in Christ of the divine condescension and 
mercy in behalf of sinners. But the scribes and Phari- 
sees, who in Scripture represent the self-justifying prin- 
ciple of our fallen nature, were able neither to appre- 
ciate nor to understand this saving manifestation. They, 
for themselves, disclaimed the character of sinners. 
They trusted in themselves that they were righteous, 
and despised others. One chief exception taken by 
them to our Lord was grounded on the kindness he 
evinced in his intercourse with those whom they looked 
down upon with contempt. It was in vindicating his 
character in this particular that this parable was spoken. 

The same truths are taught in it as in the two which 
follow it in the chapter. The three are one in their 
general scope and design. They would have seemed 
incomplete without one another, but together form a 
perfect and harmonious whole. 

In the first two parables Jesus vindicates himself 
from the accusation of the Pharisees in regard to his 
conduct toward publicans and sinners, thus showing 
his disciples the kind of procedure and conduct they 
had (<> pursue toward sinners. This he does by press- 
ing the conclusion that if it were quite natural for a 



382 



THE PARABLES OF JESUS. 



sheep and a piece of silver to be sought with so much 
trouble, how much more ought a man to be, in like 
manner, sought for ! And in the parable of the Prod- 
igal Son he defends his conduct by disclosing the state 
of mind which belonged to those sinners to whom he 
showed so much love. 

The first two parables set forth to us mainly the seek- 
ing love of God ; the third describes to us the rise and 
growth, responsive to that love, of repentance in the 
heart of man. In other words, in the former we are 
shown what God must do to bring back to true piety 
and blessedness the sinner who has wandered from the 
way of eternal life; but the latter shows us what the 
sinner who really desires to be blessed, and who has a 
penitent and believing spirit, has reason to expect of 
him — namely, a ready and most welcome reception. 

THE LOST SHEEP. 

That the Shepherd referred to in the parable is Christ 
there can be no doubt. His own assumption of this 
character and name in the tenth chapter of John is con- 
clusive on this point. And the presentation which he 
here made of himself to the spiritual rulers of the Jewish 
people had a peculiar fitness for them, inasmuch as they 
too were shepherds — continually charged, rebuked and 
warned in the Old Testament under this same title — yet 
now finding fault with Christ for doing that very thing 
which they ought, and which the name they bore should 
have reminded them that they ought, to have done. 

Man, in his original state, enjoyed the fullness of his 
Maker's favor. God's delight was with him. He lived 
in the element of holiness. Happiness, peace, joy, life, 
were secured to him if he continued obedient. He 



THE LOST SHEEP. 383 

walked with God, and God with him, in want of nothing, 
for God was with him as his Shepherd. But a cloud 
soon turns the brightness of his condition into the shadow 
of death. One moment, as it were, we see him in Eden, 
amid bowers of beauty and unutterable loveliness ; the 
next we find him dwelling in a world which is accursed, 
thorns and thistles springing up around him, the noble- 
ness of his image changed, and darkness, thick darkness, 
all around him. 

" I have gone astray," says the Psalmist, " like a sheep 
that is lost." This, indeed, is the constant emblem in 
Scripture of our condition as estranged from God and 
seeking happiness from the world. Other views of our 
state and character show our criminality as apostates, 
rebels and enemies to God, and are suited to humble us 
before him; but this illustrates rather our blind and 
stupid ignorance, our misery and our danger. 

What weakness does the sheep indicate in wandering 
from its companions ! and how unutterable is man's folly 
in bartering heaven for the trifles of earth ! How will 
the wandering sheep continue to stray, ever increasing its 
distance from the flock ! and how does fallen man wan- 
der farther and farther from God continually ! What 
more helpless and exposed than a lost sheep ! It can 
neither flee from its enemies nor resist them. It is sur- 
rounded with dangers against which it can take no pre- 
caution, and unless again brought under the care of the 
shepherd if must at length be destroyed. Now, in such 
a world of temptation as this, where " our adversary, the 
devil, like a roaring lion, goeth about seeking whom he 
may devour," and, as "transformed into an angel of 
light," uses with immense success a vast variety of 
artifices to deceive men, wc are exposed to numberless 



38 1 



THE PARABLES OF JESUS. 



dangers of which few are al all aware, and from which 
none, left to themselves, could possibly escape 

This is a true representation of every man'- condition 
by nature. Having forsaken God, living impenitent, 
and continuing to walk according to the course of this 
world, we arc lost sheep; and as such we have lost all. 
We have lost God ; we have lost his image; we have 
lost righteousness; wc have lost the way to heaven, and 
are walking in the road to everlasting ruin. 

Observe, the shepherd misses one sheep when it has 
strayed from the flock. A careless shepherd would never 
have noticed that one in a hundred was wanting, but the 
instant that this sheep wandered away this shepherd 
missed it. The Redeemer's knowledge is infinite. When 
the mighty volume is coursing along its channel to- 
ward the ocean, as has been beautifully said, he marks 
every drop that leaps aside in spray. So he looks not 
only over the human race generally, but upon each indi- 
vidual. He missed a world when it fell, although his 
worlds were scattered like grains of golden dust on the 
blue field of heaven. With equal perfection of knowl- 
edge he misses one human being who has been formed 
by his hand, but fails to hang by faith upon his love. 
The Bible speaks of " falling into the hands of the living 
God/' and calls it " a fearful thing ;" but an equally fear- 
ful thing happened before it; we fell out of the bosom 
of the living God. 

The eye of Jesus is upon every stray sinner in all his 
wanderings, in all his departure and apostasy from God ; 
and this wandering he counts his loss. He cannot regard 
it in any other light. Whatever be the ruin and wretched- 
ness man has brought upon himself, still let it be remem- 
bered that by his fall the great King has been deprived 



THE LOST SHEEP. 385 

of a bright jewel. The fine gold which he had prepared 
of honor and glory unto himself in this lower world has 
become dim, and he sees the sad change, and feels it too. 

]S"o sooner does the shepherd in the parable miss the 
sheep than he goes after it. No sooner did this world 
fall than Jesus came after it. The glorious promise 
sounding amid the wrecks of Paradise was the first 
footfall of the Son of God coming after the lost sheep. 
Those prophecies spread through four thousand years, 
those calls, remonstrances and warnings lifted up in the 
successive centuries of the past, were the voices of the 
Shepherd sounding in the wilderness after the lost sheep. 
Those types and symbols and sacrifices and shadows, 
those ceremonies and institutions of the Mosaic dispen- 
sation, — what were they but the footprints upon the sands 
of time of the great Good Shepherd in his compassion- 
ate march from heaven to earth on the grand errand 
of man's redemption? 

It is, however, in the sufferings of Christ's life espe- 
cially that we see him going forth after the lost soul. 
He had, in leaving the throne of heaven, counted the 
cost; and who can describe what that cost must have 
been ? We behold it in terrible distinctness at Calvary, 
with the darkness and sorrow of the accursed tree, the 
hiding of his Father's face, the desertion of his friends, 
the bitter spite of enemies and the faintness of bodily 
Buffering. We see it too in the garden of Gethsemane, 
when not even his truest followers could watch with him 
one hour in his agony. Yet these were but the closing 
scenes of his long journey after the lost one. His whole 
course from first to last was but one continued contra- 
diction of sinners against himself, lie toiled and labored 
and struggled as a man of sorrows and acquainted with 



386 



THE PARABLES OF JESUS. 



grief. He bent his steps in one way to find the lost, but 
each of these steps was one of untold sadness, suffering, 
reproach and trouble to the loving Shepherd. 

Jesus still continues to seek the wandering sheep. 
W'liai is the faithful preaching of the gospel, what are 
all the dispensations of Providence, what is that sense 
of want, what is that dissatisfaction with self, what are 
those checks, those remonstrances, those inward twinges 
of which we are sometimes conscious, what is that ter- 
rible looking-for of judgment and fiery indignation 
which we have when disease is upon us and death 
seems possible or probable,— what are all these but 
Jesus seeking the lost sheep to restore it to the fold? 
The shepherd, not halting at the greatness of the 
way, not shrinking when the thorns wounded his feet 
and tore his flesh, followed on till he found the wan- 
derer, and, having found it, he hid it on his shoulders. 
It will be perceived that so far as saving the lost is por- 
trayed in this similitude the work is done by the Saviour 
alone. First and last, the sinner does nothing but de- 
stroy himself: all the saving work is done for him, none 
of it by him. This is one side of salvation, and it is 
the only side that is represented here. Nor does this 
fundamental truth, that salvation is begun, carried on 
and completed by the Saviour alone, at all come into 
collision with another fundamental truth in the parable 
of the Prodigal Son, in which the other side of salva- 
tion is represented, and in which we are taught that 
except the sinful do themselves repent and come to the 
Father they shall perish in their sins. 

How refreshing and how full of consolation the pict- 
ure which is given us of the shepherd's tender treat- 
ment of the sheep which had cost him so much labor 



THE LOST SHEEP. 387 

and fatigue, in not punishing it, not even driving it 
back to the fold, but placing it upon his shoulder ! So 
Jesus, instead of venting reproaches, lightens the sin- 
ner's load, helps him to overcome hindrances, removes 
difficulties, and strengthens weakness with divine power. 
This bearing of us secures that we be kept safe, so that, 
abiding in faith, we need not be afraid of becoming lost ; 
for we are not then pursuing our own course, not even 
walking upon our own feet, but hanging upon the neck 
of our beloved Shepherd. " The phrase," says Melanch- 
tbon, " contains a sweet intimation of the passion of 
Christ. He places the found sheep upon his shoulders 
— that is, he transfers our burden to himself, becomes a 
victim for us; thence bearing us, he carries us to his 
own fluck, bears, feeds, sustains and governs us." How 
complete is our salvation ! How complete a Saviour is 
Christ ! 

Nor let it be overlooked that in seeking and saving, 
whatever it may cost him, Jesus does it with joy. See 
him at the well of Syehar. The disciples had left him 
hungry, and had gone away into the city to buy meat. 
But when they returned and spread the entertainment 
before him, and said, "Master, eat," he said, "I have 
meat to eat that ye know not of." He referred to the 
pleasure ho had just experienced in the conversion of 
the woman of Samaria and in the approaching salvation 
of her neighbors by her instrumentality: this was his 
repast. ll My meat is to do the will of Him that sent 
me, and to finish his work." So here, he layeth the 
Jon ml sheep nil, his shoulders rejoieing. 

What joy is it that he experienced? It is the joy of 

How pleasing and delightful is it to see the 

fruit of our exertions! I low delighted is the soldier, 



388 THE PARABLES OF JESUS. 

after his marchings, privations, hardships, conflicts and 
pounds, to retire in peace and share the honors of vic- 
tory and the applause of his country! Paul and liis 
companions call the Thessajonians their "glory and 
joys" Yd they were only ministers by whom they 
believed. If converts are the glory and joy of those 
who are only the instruments of their conversion, how 
much more are they the glory and joy of Him who is 
the Author of it! 

The joy of Jesus is also one of benevolence. No pleas- 
ure is so unselfish, so pure, so blissful in prospect and in 
review, as the pleasure of doing good. But this pleasure 
an ill always be in proportion to the degree of benevolent 
disposition in the benefactor. Who, then, can imagine 
the measure of delight in the communication of his fa- 
vors He must enjoy "whose heart is made of tenderness" 
— who, when he was rich, for our sakes became poor, 
and died that we might live ! 

Mark the issue! The shepherd is seen wending hid 
way homeward through the wilderness by a pathway of 
his own. Within his embrace and reclining on his shoul- 
der we discover the sheep which had wandered and now 
was found. 

Two home-comings are recognized in the Bible in the 
history of every one who becomes a Christian. "Tin; 
exile, discovered and borne buck by the discriminating 
mercy of the Redeemer, comes home when through the 
regeneration he enters a stale of grace and is received 
into the Church ; and he comes home under the leading, 
of the same Chief when in the resurrection he enters a 
state of perfect glory." If the first of these is here 
mainly meant, the second is included. 

" Rejoice with me" says the Good Shepherd, " for I 



THE LOST SHEEP. 389 

have found ray sheep which was lost." The sinner, 
penitent and believing, is now regarded with the pro- 
foundest interest. A veil is thrown over his past career, 
which conceals from our view the aggravations of his 
case. With whatever displeasure regarded while in the 
heedlessness of his wanderings, yet now that the grace 
of his Redeemer has sought out and found him, hum- 
bled and returned him, the whole aspect of his case is 
changed. 

" Rejoice with me." How natural the representation ! 
Grief retires from observation. " Hiding herself, she 
conceals rather than proclaims the sorrows that she feeds 
on, as the stricken deer leaves the herd, and the bereaved 
court retirement that they may weep in secret over their 
bleeding wounds. It is otherwise with joy. The Greek, 
on making a discovery of which he had long been in 
pursuit, was so transported as to rush from his bath 
naked into the street, and, leading the people to believe 
him mad, cry, Eureka J Eureka! — I have found it! I 
have found it !" Joy must have vent. A fountain which 
not only Hows, but overflows, jt bursts up and out, seek- 
ing to communicate its own happiness to others. How 
true, then, to Nature the feature of the parable in which 
the Good Shepherd is represented as not concealing his 
joy, nor wishing to conceal it ! How encouraging ! The 
awakened and convinced sinner feels his need of strong 
consolation; and here he has it. Why should he ask, 
" Will Jesus receive me if I apply to him?" How can 
he doubt when the Saviour thus assures him that his 
application will give him pleasure? 

This, however, is not the only lesson which this joy 
teaches. All this joy was for one sheep that was lost. 
What an impression of the individuality of the soul is 



390 



THE PARABLES OF JESUS. 



thus made! How, too, is its worth exhibited! One 
sou! is beyond al] price, [t is so in God's sight ; itought 
to be SO in ours. Think of it with its vast capacity and 
endless duration. How shall we grasp its importance? 
how shall we estimate its value ? What minister or mis- 
sionary should not feel that his whole life would be well 
spent if he should he the instrument in God's hands of 
bringing only a single soul into the way of life — of saving 
it from the intensity of indescribable agony in the realms 
of everlasting pain, and causing- it to feel the intensity 
of endless joy amid the splendors of the beatific vision? 

" I say unto you, That likewise joy shall be in heaven 
over one sinner that repenteth more than over ninety - 
and-nine just persons which need no repentance." 

Here we see that heaven and earth are united by a 
chord of sympathy. Every penitent sinner among men 
produces a sensation of gladness among the angels that 
dwell in the eternal city. Though they have scenes of 
beauty, magnificence and splendor spread out before them, 
yet they turn aside from all the splendors of their glorious 
home to see, as the most beautiful diamond that sparkles 
on the brow of heaven, the tear that drops from a peni- 
tent's eye. 

Who are the " ninety-and-nine just persons which need 
no repentance"? They cannot be the Pharisees and 
others of kindred self-righteous spirit, to whom, as some 
maintain, our Lord refers in severe but loving irony. 
For though it must be acknowledged that Jesus some- 
times spoke 1 of men not as they really were, but as they 
vainly imagined themselves to be, yet there is no sulli- 
eierit evidence that the Saviour was at this time speaking 
hypothetically, and by any peculiar mode of statement 
even seeming to give credit to the pretensions to right- 



THE LOST SHEEP. 391 

eousness made by persons before whom the publicans 
and harlots would enter into the kingdom of heaven. 

Neither by any just rule of interpretation can " the 
ninety-and-nine just persons " be regarded as intended 
to designate those who in the days of Christ's ministry 
had a righteousness which was merely legal — that is, 
persons for whom the law had done part of its work, 
keeping them from gross transgressions of its enactments, 
and yet had not done another part of its work for them, 
in convincing them of sin and preparing them to receive 
Christ, and gladly to embrace his salvation. There is 
no reason to believe that such persons, lingering in the 
vestibule and refusing to enter into the sanctuary of 
faith, occasion any gladness in heaven ; and yet, as will 
be noticed, the "ninety-and-nine" are represented as 
occasioning rejoicing, only this rejoicing is not so great 
as that which takes place over the " one." 

It is evident, therefore, that by those who "need no 
repentance " are meant those who are the children of 
God by faith in Jesus Christ ; those who now are walk- 
ing in the commandments and ordinances of the Lord : 
those who, though they find in their daily sins daily 
need for penitence, yet, having returned to God with 
contrition, need not that kind and degree of godly sor- 
row which they experienced at the beginning, but are, 
as an apostle enjoins, to " go on to perfection, not lay- 
ing again the foundation of repentance." 

Now, as thus explained, how strange is the announce- 
ment here made! In one view, we grant, it is not. Let 
the "one sinner" in question be one who is destined 
<u extensive usefulness — a Paul, a Luther, a Howard, 
a I'ay.-on, a Brainerd, a McCheyne, any one who in- 
cludes in his own conversion, so fco speak, (he conver- 



392 



THE PAH MILKS OF JESUS. 



huii of many— and then there can be do difficulty in 
imagining why his repentance should occasion greater 
joy in heaven than the conversion of many others who 
would iiui (ill bo exalted a station, wield so potent an 
influence or receive so glorious a reward. lint this is 
imt the case here presented. It is that of "one sinner" 
— any one, however obscure, illiterate or uninfluentiaJ 
lie may be. Does it not, then, seem strange that such 
an one— j nst, too, when he has become a penitent, has 
planted his first footstep in the path of life, and has 
long years perhaps through which to pass before he is 
made perfect through suffering, — that such an one 
should occasion more joy than ninety-and-nine right- 
eous persons, not only enjoying an amount of good in- 
trinsically greater, but having it diffused among so 
many, in a confirmed and advanced state of happiness? 
Let us see how this fact may lie accounted for. It is 
a law of our nature that uncertainty works up our feel- 
ings to the highest degree of intensity concerning the 
object involved. We see it in the mother as she concen- 
trates for the moment all her affections on her sick child, 
and seems to love none but that one only, and rejoices 
at its recovery more than at the uninterrupted health of 
all her other children. AVe see it in the father, who, 
when the midnight storm makes him think of the 
mountain-waves and the tossed and creaking vessel, 
fixes more of his wakeful solicitude upon his sailor- 
boy than upon all his children who are sleeping safely 
under his roof. We feel it when a friend is sick and 
his pulse threatens danger, and when, being kept pain- 
fully alive to rvrvy (urn and to every symptom in the 
progress of the disease, and earnestly longing for hi- res- 
toration to health, we seem to have forgotten the many 



THE LOST SHEEP. 393 

other friends who in other circumstances as strongly 
drew our affections to them as did then this wasting 
sufferer. Now, if the angels are under the same law — 
as the}' appear to be from the gradual development to 
them of the scheme of redemption — and if they gaze on 
the sinner from the first moment of his impression 
through all his doubts, struggles and fears, until he 
comes to know in whom he has believed, — if they 
look upon him when he kneels in sadness and rises 
in peace, how far does this go toward accounting for 
their " more joy " ! 

"We mention also the power of the reeency of events. 
When a child is born into the world it alone of all the 
domestic group draws to it every eye and kindles a 
smile upon every lip. When nations contend, as they 
often do, for the possession of a small territory, and 
armed men come into deadly conflict, the acclamations 
of joy which resound through the length and breadth 
of the country whose fleets have been victorious are 
louder far than those which are heard over conquests 
previously made — conquests, too, far more extensive 
and important than that which has just decided their 
claim to the solitary island. 

Now, there is a mighty contest for the human soul 
going on in the unseen world. Noiseless as that world 
may be to us, no sound of trumpet or clangor of arms 
being heard, it is the theatre of a most earnest struggle. 
On the one hand is (rod's enemy and ours, employing 
every device and sharpening every weapon for the at- 
tainment of his purpose. On the other the sacred per- 
sons of the Trinity are described as contriving and as 
carrying into effeci the plan for man's redemption. 
The hosts of heaveii also, sympathizing in the awful 



394 



THE PARABLES OF J 



straggle, are represented as surveying it from the 
heights of glory, and as following " Him whos 
are as a flame of fire, and on whose head arc many 
crowns. " id the conflict with the malignant and artful 
foe. Such, then, being the rase, it is but natural that 
these celestial hosts should feel a deeper thrill of ec- 
stasy at each successive triumph of their King than over 
many previously achieved. This we affirm, on the 
assumption that angels, like ourselves, arc differently 
impressed by an event as it is more or less distant in 
point of time. And this assumption is manifestly not 
without warrant, for there is every probability that it 
is the prerogative of God alone to be affected by things 
according to their real, absolute magnitude and import- 
ance. God, whose mind is omnipresent in immensity, 
grasps all things as in a point, and to him "a thou- 
sand years are as one day, and one day is as a thousand 
years." 

There are three instances in which Ave read of joy 
among the angels. The first was when the world was 
made ; the next, when Jesus was born ; and the third is 
when a sinner repents. Thus, as is evident, three great 
thin--, which the natural man would be the last to 
place in the same category, are so placed by God — the 
creation of the world, the incarnation of a God and the 
regeneration of a lost and ruined soul. 

Angel- fathom the soul's capacity, and when they 
rejoice in seeing such a magnificent thing retrieved from 
wreck, their joy is profoundly significant. For, be it 
remembered, theirs is a joy in the midst of joys; it is 
the bright stream that rolls through heaven swollen 
over its common boundaries. It is a joy that i- not 
slight and transient, but deep and permanent, not be- 



THE LOST SHEEP. 395 

coming common by repetition as all things else do, bnt 
retaining its freshness and power from age to age, so 
that the restoration of a lost soul is in the nineteenth 
century as electrifying a phenomenon among the angels 
as it was when the first soul repented and the first sin- 
ner was born again. This joy, too, is not confined to 
a few, but is universal, one feeling and one expression 
of feeling pervading the heavenly host. How plain, 
then, is it, that if one sinner, whose repentance would 
produce such an effect, should die in his sins, there 
would be an inadequate expression of grief over the 
irreparable loss, even though the heavens should be 
clothed in blackness, and the oceans, lakes and rivers 
should drop their waters in tears, and ten thousand 
volcanoes should unite their deep groanings to tell what 
had been clone ! 

At this point the solemn question suggests itself: 
Have we been brought to repentance, not merely to 
sorrow for sin, which we all need continually, but to 
a change of heart — that very change over which there 
is joy in heaven in the case of the one sinner? Have 
we ever learnt that by nature we are lost? Has not 
Jesus sought us? Has he not sought us again and 
again? Is it not true that our soul is not uncared for 
above? Have we come back to God at the Saviour's 
call ? Oh, how delightful it will be in ages to come, if 
we are numbered among the saints, to see the angels 
who rejoiced over our conversion ! They will not forget 
the happiness they experienced on such occasions, and 
they will feel their joy complete when they see the 
pardoned -inner saved from all his enemies, comforted 
after all his sorrows, and enclosed in the everlasting 
arm- of his almighty Saviour. 



396 



THE PARABLES OF JESUS. 



As the fond sheep thai idly strays, 
With wanton play, through devious ways, 
Which never hits the road of home, 
o'er wilds of danger Learns to roam, 

Till, wearied out with, idle fear, 

And passing there and turning here, 

He will, for rest, to covert run, 

And meet the wolf he strove to shim: 

Thus wretched I, through wanton will, 

Ean blind and headlong on in ill. 

'Twas thus from sin to sin I flew, 

And thus I might have perished too ; 

But merc\ T dropped the likeness here, 

And showed and saved me from my fear, 

While o'er the darkness of my mind 

The sacred Spirit purely sinned, 

And marked and brightened all the way 

Which leads to everlasting day, 

And broke the thickening clouds of sin, 

And fixed the light of love within." 



*THE*LOST 



"Oh, listen, man I 
A. voice within us speaks the startling word, 
'Man, thou, shalt never die!' Celestial voices 
Hymn it around our souls: according harps, 
By angel fingers touched when the mild stars 
Of morning sang together, sound forth still 
The song of our great immortality!" 

34 397 



8 Either what woman having ten pieces of silver, if she lose one 
piece, doth not light a candle, and sweep the house, and seek dili- 

9 gently lilt she find it ? And when she hath found it, she calleth her 
friends and her neighbors together, saying, fiejoice with me ; for I 

io have found the piece which I had lost. Likewise, I say unto you, 
there is joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner 
that repent eth. LUKE XV. 8-IO. 

398 






THE LOST COIN. 



" nnHAT our Lord," says Luther, " did not stop with 
-*- the one parable of the Shepherd, but went on to 
give another, showed his will that others also should fol- 
low his example — not vilely casting away sinners, but 
seeking to bring them to repentance." * The change of 
imagery here adopted by the Saviour is an effort, by a 
different representation, to make the truth intelligible 
in order to salvation. Some men understand one thing, 
some ' another. To talk to a tradesman in a city about 
scenes in the country and shepherds and sheep is to 
speak almost in an unknown tongue to him, but to 
talk to him of something connected with trade, with 
the transactions of commerce, is to bring the matter 
within the range of his comprehension and to render 
it probable that he will be profited by what we say. 

We are not, however, to regard this parable and the 
preceding one as being identical. The one is not a mere 
repetition of the other. They are not, like the rever- 
berations of thunder, mere echoes of one peal, nor are 
they merely repeated blows of the same hammer to 
drive a nail in to the head. This parable, indeed, pre- 
sents the same truth as the preceding one, but it is in 
another form, enabling us to look at it at another angle, 

introduction to the parable of "The Lost Sheep." 

399 



400 ' THE PARABLES OF JESUS. 

and with new features calculated still further to interest 
and impress. 

The loser here is represented as a woman, who will 
more passionately grieve for-her loss, and rejoice in the 
finding of what she lost, than perhaps a man would do, 
and therefore better serves the purpose of the parable. 
The " ten pieces of silver " the woman had may have 
been all she possessed, and hence, although of compar- 
atively small value, these pieces were carefully treasured 
up, and the loss of one would be a serious affliction. 

The lost coin represents man's soul. In its primeval 
dignity, in its original state, the soul had the image of 
the great Sovereign of the universe stamped upon it. 
" God made man upright," " in his own image," bearing 
resemblance to himself in his intellectual and moral at- 
tributes, and capable of an endless progress toward per- 
fection. The soul then reflected the perfections of its 
Maker, as the mirror does the brightness of the sun. 
But man, being left to the freedom of his will, degen- 
erated from the rectitude of his nature, so that his orig- 
inal glory is departed from him. 

It is true, indeed, that the soul still retains some traces 
of the mint from which it proceeded — something of its 
pristine greatness. Just as, when Ave gaze upon the even- 
ing sky overspread with the splendors of the vast lumi- 
nary which has sunk behind the distant hills, we catch a 
glimpse of its magnificence by the lustrous beams which 
linger, so when we look at the spirit that is in man, 
even with all the dreadful darkness that overshadows it, 
we still perceive in its powers the vestiges of its firmer 
beauty and glory. Or as when we stand by some temple 
in ruin, its pillars and capitals crushed and broken, its 
walls shattered, and venomous reptiles crawling and hiss- 



THE LOST COIN. 401 

ing where loveliness once reveled and the voice of mel- 
ody was once heard, we can yet form some conception of 
the size, symmetry and grandeur of the majestic edifice 
as it once stood, so, as we think of the marvelous capa- 
city and powers of man — his memory, judgment, imag- 
ination, conscience, will — we get an idea, faint though 
it be, of the original excellence of his soul, in which, 
as a temple, the great God delighted to dwell. Still, 
with all its lingering faculties and powers, that soul 
is lost — it is lost to the original end of its being; it is 
lost for all useful purposes to its rightful owner. What- 
ever else it may do, it does not glorify God, the very 
end for which it was called into being, and hence it 
is lost. 

Not only this. Was not that coin possessed of 
inherent value ? Wherever it was, was it not still a 
piece of precious metal? And is not man's soul still 
invested with a matchless worth? What but this did 
Jesus mean when he said, not of the Christian, but of 
any one, of all, " What shall a man give in exchange 
for his soul?" How aptly, therefore, is the human 
spirit in its darkness and corruption compared to a 
piece of silver! And as we contemplate it, with its 
superscription effaced audits lustre blurred and miser- 
ably tarnished, what sad reason have we to take up the 
prophet's lamentation, "How is the gold become dim! 
how is the must fine gold changed!" 

The coin was lost in the house; and here is hope 
for the sinner, ft makes a vast difference as to the 
recuperableness of a thing that is missing whether 
it disappeared in one place or another. Let a man 
mislay a precious jewel in his domicil, and far different 
i- his experience from what it would be if thai treasure, 



402 THE PARABLES OF JESUS. 

as he was crossing the wide ocean, had accidentally 
dropped from his fingers down to the bottom of the 
mighty deep. We know what is lost in a house can 
be found if only proper search is made. And so we 
despair not of the salvation of any who are within the 
boundaries in which the gospel is preached. Though 
his sins he as scarlet, yet may they be as white as 
snow ; and though they be red like crimson, yet may 
they become as wool. Man, of course, never will 
recover himself. This he can no more do than an 
inanimate, inert coin that is lost can recover itself. 
Divine grace must kindle in the sinner's heart the first 
desire of salvation, and conduct him through the 
process of restoration to the divine favor. 

In Eastern countries, where comfort lies rather in 
excluding than admitting the rays of a burning sun, 
the houses are built of dead walls, and the rooms in 
consequence are dark even in the daytime. The floors, 
too, being formed of dried mud, are dusty. The 
picture, then, is true to nature, of the woman lighting 
the candle and sweeping the house. We read in the 
Bible that "the spirit of a man is the candle of the 
Lord," and, oh! how that candle searches us! It 
throws its light upon all our thoughts and ways, show- 
ing us our relation to Him who made us, and revealing 
to us, as it scatters even the darkness of the grave, the 
immortality which awaits us beyond. Often would we 
obscure its shining, but, faithful to itself, it continues 
to shed its radiance around and above us, reminding us 
,,[' our dignity and urging us to our duty. We may 
say to the living principle within us, " Soul, take thine 
ease," but that soul feels, and shows that it feels, that, 
there arc higher interests than those which pertain to 



THE LOST COIN. 403 

earth, and holier interests than those which lead to 
sinful indulgences of the body. 

"The candle of the Lord" here referred to is not 
the spirit of man, however, but the word of God, which 
is so beautifully and significantly represented by itself 
as " a light shining in a dark place." " The first prom- 
ise pronounced amid the ruins of Eden, the woman's 
'Seed shall bruise the serpent's head,' was the first 
spark from which this candle was lighted, and was the 
promise of a Saviour : this light gleamed brighter in 
the days of Abraham, brighter still in the days of 
Moses, till every type and shadow and symbol and 
sacrifice and person became a candlestick, and the 
whole earth and sky were illumined by altar-candles 
lit for blessed mysteries. The whole land of Judsea 
was irradiated by this light, and at last the Sun himself 
came — that Sun which now rises above the horizon, 
tipping every event with his light and every dispensa- 
tion with his beams." This truth the Holy Spirit 
causes to illuminate the sinner's soul, so that it sees its 
condemned, polluted and lost condition. 

.Many, we are aware, regard the phrase, "swept the 
house," as only a pictorial representation, falling in 
with the figure employed, and therefore inserted by a 
sort of necessity. But we do not so understand these 
words. In the process of sweeping what a deranging 
of the house is there for a time ! How does the dust 
which had been allowed to accumulate begin to rise and 
fly about in every direction! how unwelcome that which 
is going forward to any that may lie in the house and 
have no interest in the finding of that which has been 

lost! Thus, precisely, is it with God's word. Ever- 
more ha- the charge been made against it that it turns 



40-4 Tin. PARABLES OF JESUS. 

the world upside down ; and bo indeed it does. For 
only let that word be proclaimed, and how much of 
latent aversion to the truth becomes now open enmity! 
how much of torpid alienation from God is changed 
into active hostility to him! what an outcry is there 
against the troublers of Israel, against the witnesses 
that torment the dwellers upon earth, the men that 
will not let the world alone! 

And what is true of the world at large is true of 
every individual heart in it. Men are not prepared to 
receive the "truth as it is in Jesus." Tell them of the 
things which do not touch their pride or condemn their 
passions, and they will listen to them with at least in- 
difference. Tell them that there is a God whose hh- 
taining providence extends to all the workmanship of 
his hands, tell them there is a world of light and glory 
where " the wicked cease from troubling and the weary 
are at rest," and they may receive the announcement 
with satisfaction if not with joy. But say to them 
that God's law is holy, that it takes cognizance of words 
as well as deeds, motives as well as actions ; say to them 
that " the heart is deceitful above all things, and des- 
perately wicked " — that the soul that sinneth shall die, 
— say these things to them, and at once the resistance 
and rebellion that belong to the carnal mind will begin 
to show themselves. 

The application of divine truth to the heart of the 
sinner produces agitation, alarm, excitement. His prej- 
udices are aroused, his passions stirred, his fears awak- 
ened. There is. by the operation of this truth upon 
his soul, an interference with his cherished habits, an 
upturning of his indifference to ( rod and spiritual things, 
and the revelation of a depravity which perhaps as long as 



THE LOST COIN. 405 

it was unstirred was unsuspected, and the man, as- 
tounded, alarmed, confused, is led to ask, " What shall 
I do to be saved ?" 

The woman sought diligently for the lost piece of 
silver. It is encouraging to think that she even missed 
it. This of itself should cany a beam of joy into the 
heart of the wanderer from God. Whilst it should 
grieve it should also gladden him that he is not regarded 
as without value in heaven, where the true standard of 
value only is to be found. The entire representation of 
lighting the candle, sweeping the house and seeking 
diligently teaches us that the woman's whole thoughts 
were upon the lost coin. It was not for mere pastime 
or curiosity that she was engaged as she was. She 
spared no pains to recover what she missed. Every 
part of the house was searched with great care and 
minuteness. Every dark nook and corner in which 
the lost treasure perchance might lie concealed was 
examined. 

What an exhibition is here of " the love of the 
Spirit " ! Think how much resistance and insult is 
offered to him, think how often his gracious calls are 
slighted, and you will be ready, judging him by the 
manner of men, to see him abandon his pursuit. But 
no ! On he goes in his effort to save. From the first 
man who fell and was brought back, to the last soul 
that shall be saved, the loving Spirit never ceases his 
earnest and merciful search. No amount of ignorance, 
darkness or corruption has slaved his progress. Though 
grieved and rebelled a gainst every hour, yet has he not 
tarried in his diligent search, lb; has left nothing un- 
done thai could be done to discover the lost one, to 
bring him into light, to free him from the pollutions 



•101) 



THE PARABLES OF JESUS. 



which have gathered around him, and to give him a 
name and a place in the kingdom of God. 

It should not In- overlooked that all the woman's 
trouble was taken for but one missing piece of money. 
This shows us the preciousness of one soul. People 
sometimes talk slightingly of missionary-work and of 
other efforts to do good to souls, because, say they, the 
success is so small. If they thought aright of* the 
value of a soul, they would not speak thus. Let it be 
granted that the number of the heathen converted by 
the preaching of the gospel is but small compared with 
the vast number that remain heathen still, and that in 
all gospel-work, whether at home or abroad, we should 
gladly see hundreds and thousands turned to God in- 
stead of tens or ones. Yet even one soul is beyond all 
price. It is so in God's sight; it ought to be so in ours. 
Is not each soul to live for ever ? Must it not be in 
endless misery if not in endless happiness? Then how 
can it be a light thing that even one soul should be 
saved ? 

Mark the joy that was experienced at the finding of 
the lost coin. The woman " calleth her friends and her 
neighbors together, saying, Eejoice with me, for I have 
found the piece which was lost." There is no room 
left for us to guess or conjecture to whom the words 
"friends" and "neighbors" point, for the Great Teacher 
has immediately added an exposition of them, saving, 
"Likewise 1 say unto you, There is joy in the pr< 
of the angels of God over one sinner that repenteth." 

With equal plainness does the phrase, "when she 
hath found it," teach us when the joy in question is 
experienced. Jt is not when the sinner is received into 
glory; it is when lie has, through the grace of God, 



THE LOST COIN. 407 

passed from death into life — when he has only entered 
the way to Zion, and has yet to make progress in it. 
Then it is, even then, ere the ransomed one has risen 
from his knees or wiped his tears away, ere he has had 
time to sing a hymn or sit down at the communion 
table on earth, that the Holy Spirit rejoices, and calls 
upon the angels to rejoice, that the dead is alive and 
the lost is found. 

How do the angels acquire a knowledge of the con- 
version of the sinner? It is assumed by some that 
they do this in the exercise of their inherent faculties : 
and this assumed fact is alleged as a reason in support 
of prayers addressed to unseen created spirits. Bat this 
idea rests upon an exegesis that is demonstrably erro- 
neous. The comparison which is introduced by the term 
"fo'&ewise" evidently indicates that there is joy among 
the angels in the manner of the rejoicing which took 
place after the piece of money was found. What was 
that ? The woman, after recovering the coin, not con- 
tented with rejoicing herself, told her neighbors about 
her happiness and its cause, manifested her joy in their 
presence, and invited them to rejoice in sympathy with 
her. It is after this manner that joy in heaven over a 
repenting sinner begins and spreads. The neighbors 
and friends did not know the fact that the lost silver 
was found until the finder told them and invited them 
to participate in the joy. So the angels do not become 
aware of the sinner's repentance by a species of sub- 
ordinate omniscience. He who saved the sinner knows 
that the sinner is saved ; rejoicing in the fact, he makes 
it known to his attendants and invites them to share in 
his joy. 

Bui it is with the fad of the rejoicing, rather than 



408 THE PARABLES OF JE& 

the manner of it, tliat we are mainly concerned. The 
Holy Spirit and the angelic throng, as we see, all rejoice 
Those blessed spirits, who occupy the highest rank in 
the scale of creatureehip, and who, though they dwell 
in the heaven of heavens, yel visit our world and the 
innumerable planets which steal along the face of the 
sky, and thus have the most ample opportunity of 
understanding the endless multitude and the astonish- 
ing character of the works of creation and providence, 
all rejoice "over one sinner that repenteth." 

And let it be observed the "one sinner" whose con- 
version is the electrifying phenomenon that generates 
this joy is not necessarily one who is destined to exten- 
sive usefulness, but arty sinner — any one, in a cottage 
or an almshouse, a palace or a prison — any one, though 
his condition be so low and his abilities so mean that 
his conversion -tops in his own soul's salvation. At 
any such one's conversion it is said the Holy Spirit 
rejoices and the angels burst forth in tones of ec.-tasy. 

Here, again, we are thrown back upon the greatness 
of the soul. The more we think of it, the more we 
must be convinced that it is the most magnificent created 
thing in the earth. What capacity of woe ! What sus- 
ceptibility of joy! What latent powers to be devel- 
oped ! What giant faculties ! Plow worthy of a God 
to make it ! how needful the interposition of a God 
to redeem it! The soul — ■ 

" That mysterious thing 
Which hath no limits from the walls of 
No chill from hoary time — with pale decay 
No fellowship, hut shall stand forth unchanged, 

Uhscorched amid the resurrection-fires, 

To hear its boundless lot of good or ill." 



tii?: LOST COIN. 409 

Oh, the willingness of God to save! "As I live," 
saith he, " I have no pleasure in the death of the 
wicked." " What," he asks, " could have been done 
more for my vineyard that I have not done in it?" 
To the edge of the grave, to the brink of perdition, we 
see him following the most obstinate and headstrong 
sinners with the earnest entreaty, " Turn ye ! turn ye ! 
why will ye die?" Do not, then, fellow-sinner, run 
away from God and seek to avoid his distinguishing 
mercy. Do not run from the reading of the Bible 
and the faithful preaching of the gospel. Do not try to 
escape from a twinge of conscience that you do not like. 
Do not try to banish any convictions of sin that rankle 
in your mind. What would you think of a physician 
who would try to remove a disease by deadening the 
the feeling of it, not by striking at the root and essence 
of it? Take care, then, how you suffer your passions, 
prejudices and pleasures to rise up and drown the voice 
of the Eternal Spirit as his tones of warning and invi- 
tation echo through the chambers of your soul. 

Let the people of God learn to think more of their 
heavenly homo. We see here the angels having new 
joy from events occurring in our world. Should we 
not try to bring some joy into our hearts from the 
contemplation of their world? We know, indeed, little 
about heaven, but one reason is, we are content to know 
little; we do not stretch our minds to enter into what 
the Holy Scriptures tell us of heaven. Many glim pses 
of its glory are to be discovered there: let us look for 
them as tli«' mariner scans the distant horizon for the 
wished-for land. They arc like a ray from the midday 
sun penetrating a fissure in a dark room: the room is 
still dark, but that one ray serves to show what a bright 



410 THE PARABLES OF JESUS. 

sun-liin.- there is without. Yet a little and we shall 
be in that sunshine. The joy which we have been 
reading of will be known to us by actual experience. 
Oh, what a scene will that be when the last sinner is 
housed in heaven — when 

"All the ransomed Church of God 
Are saved, to Bin no more" ! 

What an amazing song will be raised then, and what 
a shout of joy ! May we hear it ! May we join in it ! 
May all the blessedness of the angels, yea, may the joy 
of the Lord himself, be ours! 






■THE * PRODISAL * SON.-*- 



Oh, turn, and be thou turned! The selfish tear, 
In bitter thoughts of low-born care begun,— 

Let it flow on, but flow refined and clear, 
The turbid waters brightening as they run. 

: Let it flow on, till all thine earthly heart 
In penitential drops have ebbed away; 
Then, fearless, turn where Heaven hath set thy part, 
Nor shudder at the eye that saw thee stray. 

' O lost and found! all gentle souls below 

Their dearest welcome shall prepare, and prove 
Such joy o'er thee as raptured seraphs know, 
Who learn their lesson at the throne of love." 

411 



n,i2 And he said, A certain man had two sons: And the younger 

of them said to his father, Father, give me the portion of goods that 

Ij fallet'i to me. And lie divided unto them his living. And not 

many days after the younger son gathered alt together, and took his 

journey into a far country, and there wasted his substance with 
14 riotous living. And when he had spent all, there arose a mighty 
j j famine in that land,- and he began to be in want. And he went 

and joined himself to a citizen of that country ; and he sent him 
ib into his fields to feed swine. And he would fain have filed his belly 

with the husks that the swine did eat: and no man gave unto him. 
ij And when he came to himself, he said, How many hired servants of 

my father s have bread enough and to spare, and I perish with hun- 
iS ger! I will arise and go to my father, and will say unto him, 
jg Father, I have sinned against heaven, and before thee, And am no 

more worthy to be called thy son : make me as one of thy hired ser- 

20 vants. And he arose', and came to his father. But when he was 
yet a great way off, his father saw him, and had compassion, and 

21 ran, and fell on his neck, and kissed him. And the son said unto 
him. Father, I have sinned against heaven, and in thy sight, and 

22 am no more worthy to be called thy son. But the father said to his 
servants, Bring forth the best robe, and put it on him : and put a 

2j ring on his hand, and shoes on his feel : And bring hither the fatted 

24 calf, and kill it ; and let us eat, and be merry: For this my son 
was dead, and is alive again ; he was lost, and is found. And they 

25 began to be merry. Now his elder son was in the field: and as he 
2b came and drew nigh to the house, he heard music and dancing. And 

he called one of the servants, and asked 'what these things meant. 

27 And he said unto him, Thy brother is come ; and thy father hath 
killed the fatted calf, because he hath received him safe and sound. 

28 And he was angry, and would not go in : therefore came his father 
2i) out, and eu/reated him. And he answering said to his father, Lo, 

these many years do I serve thee, neither transgressed I at any lime 

thy commandment : and yet thou ih vergavt si me a kid, thai 1 might 

jo make merry with my friends : But as soon as this thy son was come, 

d thy living with harlots, thou hast killed for him 

jr the fa/led calf. And he said unto him, Son, thou art ever with me, 

32 and all that I have is thine. It was meet that we should make 

/in rry, and be glad: for this thy brother was dead, and is alive again ; 

and was lost, and is found. 

Luke xv. 11-3?. 

112 



THE PRODIGAL SON 



rr^BENCH calls this " the pearl and crown of all the 
-*- parables of the Scripture." Others denominate it 
" A Gospel in the Gospel." Lavater says, " Had Christ 
only come to earth for the purpose of delivering this 
parable, on that account alone should all mortal and 
immortal beings have concurred in bending the knee 
before him." It is universally admitted to be one of 
the most beautiful and affecting pieces of composition 
which can anywhere be found. 

It has been suggested that the name by which the 
parable is generally known is not the most appropriate 
that could have been employed. True, it is applicable, 
inasmuch as the history is one of a youth Avho acted 
as a prodigal. But it will be observed that the leading 
subject of this and the two preceding parables is the lost 
soul of man, guilty, sinful man. The great truths con- 
cerning this are taught us, first, by the figure of a "lost 
sheep," then, by that of a "lost piece of money," and 
now, by that of a "lost son." "This my son was lost 
and is found." Just, then, as we call the first the 
" Parable of the Lost Sheep," so, it seems to us, might 
we fitly call the last the "Parable of the Lost Son." 
A l Christ's advent the Jewish state was merged into 
the Roman empire, and was, in consequence, taxed to 
■■::, ■ -113 



414 THE PARABLES OF JESUS. 

maintain :i foreign, and, what was particularly offensive 
to the Jews, a heathen, government. The parties 
employed in raising tins public revenue, and who were 
therefore called " publicans," were obnoxious to every 

piQUS and patriotic Jew. Men of character would not 
accept the office. Excluded from the ranks of respect- 
able society, the publicans acquired the habits of that 
class into which they sank. Hence we find them in the 
Gospels frequently associated with "sinners" — "publi- 
cans and sinners." 

At the time this parable was spoken a multitude of 
these persons, notorious for their vices, gathered around 
Jesus " to hear him " — a phrase in which there is an 
implied contrast between the object for which they 
sought the Saviour's presence and the mere motive of 
curiosity which appears to have actuated the multitudes 
who approached him on some other occasions. A deep 
sense of their need of just such instruction as he im- 
parted was the cause of their assembling in such num- 
bers to hear him, although it would be too much to 
suppose that they were all free from the motives of 
curiosity which drew many to Jesus after his fame had 
become public. The Pharisee, who swept in full sail 
to the temple to thalik God that he was not as these 
publicans, dreading their touch, said, -'Stand aside, I 
am holier than thou!" His proud and self-righteous 
sect could not comprehend how one who claimed to be a 
religious teacher should be willing to associate with and 
teach such lost reprobates. Not so Jesus Christ, ab- 
horrent to his holy nature as were their impiety and 
impurity. Passing like a sunbeam through the foulest 
atmosphere without pollution, breathing infected air, 
but proof against contagion, he rather sought than 






THE PRODIGAL SON. 415 

shunned the company of publicans and sinners. It was 
to reveal the riches of gospel grace, God's purpose of 
mercy and the delight he has in converting such sin- 
ners, even the greatest sinners, that Jesus added the 
stoiy of the Prodigal to the other parables preceding it 
in the chapter. 

Observe the desire of the younger of the two sons for 
freedom from control. His situation was one of ease 
and enjoyment. Living in the house of his indulgent 
father, he knew not the want of anything which was 
good and proper for him. If the " hired servants " 
were so well taken care of and so plentifully supplied, 
we may be sure that the son was not neglected. He 
was treated with kindness, and abundantly provided 
with everything which could contribute to his comfort 
and happiness. But amid all these advantages he was 
restless and uneasy. The sober, rational enjoyments of 
his father's family did not suit his turn of mind. He 
found them dull and insipid, and he sighed after other 
amusements and pleasures more congenial to his taste. 
He was anxious to see the world, to live without re- 
straint and to be his own master. Home, which was 
the sweet asylum of his first years and the happy scene 
of his simple and regulated habits, had become a prison 
to his vitiated desires. We have more than an intimation 
of the entire alienation from domestic affections which 
had already found place in his heart in the almost legal 
form in which he claimed his share of the estate: "Give 
me the portion of goods that falleth to me." Thus, by 
speaking as a suitor-at-law, lie indicated that he had cast 
off from him the tender and touching associations of child- 
hood, and was determined to live in a stale of independ- 
ence and to be governed by his own corrupt judgment. 



416 THE PARABLES OF JESUS. 

How differenl was tins state of hear! from tlic true 
godly feeling expressed in that petition, " Give us this 
day our daily bread," in which we acknowledge that 
we desire to wait continually upon God for the supply 
of pur needs, and that we recognize our dependence 
upon him as our true blessedness! Yet this is the 
state of heart in which every sinner is by nature. He 
might be happy in the family and favor of his heavenly 
Father j he is invited to choose the ways of religion, 
and is assured that he shall find them to be the ways 
of pleasantness and peace. He is told, on the authority 
of Him who is Truth itself, that if he will fear God 
and keep his commandments he shall want no good 
thing. But he wishes to be independent of God, and 
to take the ordering of his life into his own hands, be- 
lieving that he can be a fountain of blessedness to him- 
self; and in this — man's spirit of self-sufficiency and 
insubordination — is to be found the germ of which all 
ln's other sins are but the natural sequences or devel- 
opments. 

Having succeeded in obtaining the provision which he 
demanded (and, as is most probable, too, under some such 
false pretence as that of entering into trade or of improv- 
ing himself by traveling), the unhappy youth, who had 
listened only to the calls of appetite and pleasure, did 
not find it compatible with his spirit and his plans to 
continue his residence under the paternal roof. Even 
the reverend presence of his father, which was a source 
of happiness in the period of his innocence, had come to 
be irksome. Some remaining sentiments of duty .-lill 
existed in the midst of his lollies, which rendered it 
painful to know that that good man Mas acquainted 
with his evil tendencies. He hastened, therefore, to 



THE PRODIGAL SOX. 417 

escape from the restraints of an authority, a veneration 
for which his vices had not entirely extinguished in his 
heart. True, indeed, as if to show how the apostasy of 
the heart will often precede the apostasy of the life, a few 
days intervened between his obtaining his portion and 
his leaving home. But when this period of delay had 
passed, which a regard to external propriety called for, 
he " gathered all together, and took his journey into a 
far country, and there wasted his substance with riotous 
living." 

This was a most interesting juncture in his history, 
and by an easy effort of the imagination we can bring it 
before us. He is secretly exulting at the success of his 
solicitation, little reflecting that it would have profited 
nothing to retain him at home against his will who had 
already become strange to that home. He moves through 
the old mansion and about it with hurried steps, carefully 
concealing his ultimate design, yet rapidly converting his 
share of goods into money or valuables which he can 
carry with him. A scene of fancied pleasures, to which 
his youthful imagination gives its own coloring, is rising 
and shining before him. He sets off with only an affec- 
tation of parting regret, and with a parade of magnif- 
icence, upon his projected journey. He is now master of 
his own fortune, he is free from every inconvenient re- 
striction, his health is vigorous and his resources are 
abundant and available. What more is needed to fill 
his enp of happiness to the brim? 

The adventurous youth reaches the place of his des- 
tination. He is admired, caressed, flattered. His arrival 
has produced a sensation in the community which largely 
ministers to his vanity. Headlong he rushes into the 
pleasures before him, with no other study hut how to 



418 



THE 1 VI fi . I B 7. BS OF .1 ES I fS. 



vary them. He Ls engaged in a whirl of folly which 
hardly leaves his intoxicated heart one moment for 
reflection. Il<' gives the reign to his evil inclinations. 
His enjoyments gradually become of a more reckless 

and depraved character. He drives from his mind all 
remembrance of his indulgent parent ; he forgets his 
pious instructions; he thinks not of the pain which he 
would feel should the tidings of his son's misconduct 
reach him. Onward he goes, pursuing his pleasure with 
greediness and becoming altogether sunk in sensual lusts. 
By degrees extravagance consumes his riches, riot under- 
mines his health, debauch weakens the faculties of his 
mind, excess exhausts the powers of enjoyment, diseases 
settle upon the abused and shattered frame, and peace of 
mind and self-respect are lost in the gulf of the passions, 
supplanted by remorse and sunk in the humiliating con- 
viction of the forfeited esteem of the world. 

"Wretched object! Stripped of his money, shrunken 
with hunger, turned out as a swineherd into the fields, 
and more than willing to eat the pods of the carob tree 
used only as fodder for beasts, a beggar and a stranger 
in a far-off land, with the glad remembrances of a for- 
mer and happy life making more vivid and sorrowful 
his present wretchedness, — there he lies, the younger son 
of a liberal and bountiful father, loathsome, degraded, 
wretched ! His substance was wasted ! What a melan- 
choly picture of self-begotten misery and woe!" 

How faithful a representation is this of unconverted 
men! God has given them life, reason, health, strength, 
time, influence, but all these gifts, all these energies and 
powers, they "gather together" with the determination 
of getting, through their help, all the gratification they 
can out of the world. With this intent they travel 



THE PRODIGAL SON. 419 

away from God. They consult not his wishes ; they 
employ their talents, whatever they may be, according 
to the "devices and desires of their own hearts/' and 
not in obedience to his commands and fatherly wishes. 
It is only when God's awful holiness, when the majesty 
of his perfection, when all his relations to us as our 
Father, our Judge and the Avenger of our crimes, are 
forgotten or pushed from our thoughts, that conscience 
is rendered silent, that the fears of guilt are laid asleep, 
and that reason dares to betray its sacred trust, and be- 
come the pander of lust or the advocate of passion. 

Men thus try to get at a distance from God. They 
openly prefer the creature to the Creator. They put 
away serious thoughts ; they stifle the voice of con- 
science ; they blot from their memory the impressions 
which a religious education has made; they turn a deaf 
ear to admonition, from whatever quarter it may come ; 
and thus, in fact, say to the Almighty, " Depart from 
me, for I desire not the knowledge of thy ways." 

Every sinner, indeed, may not run the same par- 
ticular course with the Prodigal, but each one is char- 
acterized by this — the manifest turning of his back 
upon God. He is pursuing that path, amid the many 
on the broad road, to which his depraved disposition 
leads him. In some way or other he is serving sin and 
walking after the course of this present evil world. He 
is forgetting God and minding earthly things. He is 
separating his heart from God. Physically and me- 
chanically, of course, this is impossible. But morally, 
spiritually, every one of us by nature is an apostate, 
and our course, if unchecked, is one of constant retro- 
gression from God. 

Nor can this backward movement fail at every stage 



420 THE PARABLES OF JESUS. 

of it to present a new spring of misery. The "deceit- 
fulness of sin" may lead us to think otherwise. l>ut 
such a result is sure to come. How unlikely that the 
ample provision which this wayward youth received, 
and which might have procured him a virtuous and 
happy independence, would become the fatal instrument 
of his shame and ruin ! All appeared smiling around 
him, and he seemed to himself to be in the morning of 
a fair and beautiful day that would never be obscured 
by a cloud. It may be he counted that he had done 
wisely in claiming liberty for himself. Doubtless, he 
never dreamed that he who was once rich would be- 
come poor ; that he who was the member of a noble 
family would be doomed to an employment than which, 
to him ;i- a Jew, none could be more odious and abom- 
inable; that he who Mas surrounded with abundance 
and variety should ever fail to receive a remuneration 
sufficient to satisfy his hunger even with the coarsest 
food ; that he who had friends in his prosperity to assist 
him in spending his portion should ever be left alone 
to battle with adversity in its most humiliating forms. 
But all these sad changes came. And such is the fruit 
which sin naturally tends to produce. It attracts by 
flattery, it destroys by delusion. It presents the bait, 
but hides the hook. It promises much, yet how does 
it perform? "Though wickedness be sweet in his 
mouth, though lie hide it under his tongue, though he 
spare it, and forsake it not, but keep it still within his 
mouth, yet his meat in his bowels is turned, it is the 
gall of asps within him." "The way of the trans- 
gressor" must ever be "hard." A great English poet, 
with everything that fortune, rank and genius could 
give, and who had laid out his whole life for pleasure, 



THE PRODIGAL SON. 421 

and not for duty, before he had reached half the allot- 
ted period of man exclaimed, 

" My days are in the yellow leaf, 

The flowers, the fruits, of love are gone ; 
The worm, the canker, and the grief 

Are mine alone : 
The fire that on my bosom preys 

Is lone as some volcanic isle ; 
No torch is lighted at its blaze, 

A funeral pile !" 

And this sense of misery must, in a greater or less de- 
gree, be the experience of every man in departing from 
the living God. In this the soul is true to itself. It 
Mill not be satisfied without its proper nourishment. 
Man sighs for the bread in his Father's house. There 
is a good which he finds not. He looks abroad, he 
joins himself to one creature or another, but he finds 
it to be a broken cistern, and soon abandons it. 

Nothing but the enjoyment of God can satisfy the 
mind of man. All things beside this are mere husks 
that the swine eat. 

True, this yearning of the soul for its proper portion 
may be to some extent repressed or subdued. Amidst 
the levity of youth or the conflicts of ambition or the 
excitement of business man may not hear, so as to be 
much disturbed by it, the cry of his famishing spirit. 
Tin- world having still its attractions, and the flesh its 
pleasures, and the sources of natural delight still being 
open, he may not feel keenly the pinching of spiritual 
destitution. But come the period will, even though his 
sina should not (as in the case before us) bear all their 
Legitimate fruit of distress, disease and disgrace, when 

by the failure of all his efforts after happiness, or by 



422 THE PARABLES OF JESUS. 

the strokes of Providence, or by the decays of Nature, 
or by persona] affliction, or by death staring him in the 
face, he Bhall be made to feel in want — made to feed the 
vanity of all earthly resources, whilst his soul is bereft 
of God, its true and proper good. 

There is a blank in the Prodigal's history at the point 
up to which we have considered it. The later stages of 
his misery are not exhibited; fully exposed, they might 
have been shocking rather than impressive. How the 
Prodigal fared under that veil as his misery day by day 
increased to its climax we know not; but at length he 
suddenly emerged another man. " He came to himself." 
The foul stream that had sunk into the earth and flowed 
for a space under ground burst to the surface again, agi- 
tated still indeed, but comparatively pure. We learn for 
the first time that the man has been mad by learning that 
his reason is restored. It is characteristic of the insane 
man that he never knows or confesses his insanity until 
it has passed away. It is when he has come to himself 
that he first discovers that he has been beside himself. 
" Madness," says Solomon, " is in the heart of the sin- 
ner." As madness is a disease of the rational powers, 
so vice is of the moral powers. Sin unhinges the whole 
frame of the moral being, tinges every sentiment of the 
heart and presents to view a being made after the image 
of God sinking that image into the resemblance of a 
brute or the character of a fiend. Men of the world 
deny this: they boast of their reason, but their boasting 
is folly. Every wicked man is beside himself; he acts 
the part of a fool. He risks his eternal salvation for 
the momentary pleasures of sin. 

It is another characteristic of insanity that when the 
man is restored to reason the mind annihilates the inter- 



THE PRODIGAL SON. 423 

val and resumes the train of ideas it had pursued in its 
sound state. Thus, the penitent in the parable, recover- 
ing as from a delirium, transports himself into the time 
past. His former life recurs to his mind ;" his father's 
house rises to view ; he recalls the happy days before he 
went astray, and draws a comparison with his present 
situation. 

"He came to himself." Hitherto he had been a 
man " beside himself," " out of his mind," acting with- 
out reason, moving in the somnambulism of some wild 
and wretched dream. But that dream was now break- 
ing. He saw himself as he had been — a young man 
rich in money, in friends, in social influence and posi- 
tion, in appliances of mental and moral culture. He 
saw himself as he might have been — in the full career 
of successful manhood, his eyes flashing with intellect 
and eloquent with genius, walking bravely, grandly, 
among the multitude. He saw himself as he was — a 
wretched outcast, his brow matted with shaggy hair, his 
dark eyes sunken and heavy, his face bloated, his elo- 
quent lips swollen, his form bent and crouching and 
covered with tattered rags, wasted, famishing, munch- 
ing the unseemly husks whereon the swine fattened. A 
beloved son — a spurned menial ! A glorious man — for- 
lorn, ruined, lost ! 

And all this in the midst of God's fair world — the 
Bummer hills all around him waving their palms as 
brave banners; the winds, as tiny wrestle even with 
his tangled locks, shouting their watchwords; the great 
blue heaven above thrilling with voices, inspiring im- 
mortal 111:111 to life's brave struggles and grand rewards! 
And yet he, amid all this, a discord among Nature's 
harmonies, a blol on Nature's writings, a spirit fallen 



424 THE PARABLES OF JESUS. 

from life's high places — something meant to be a man, 
but now only a wreck, a desolation ! 

Such was the effect of consideration. It is for the 
want of this that the sinner- goes forward in the error 
of his ways. "Consider your ways" is the admonition 
which God addresses to mankind in every aire; and un- 
less we consider, the calls of the gospel and the offers of 
grace are made to no purpose. The world to come has 
no existence to us but what we give it ourselves. The 
eternity that is before us, the happiness of heaven and 
the misery of hell, are no more than dreams unless we 
realize them to ourselves — unless we give them their full 
force by bringing them home to the heart. Reflection ami 
thought are most important steps toward reformation of 
the ( rror of our life. "I thought upon my ways," says 
the Psalmist; and what was the consequence?— "I turn- 
ed my feet unto thy testimonies." 

" I will arise and go to my father, and will say unto 
him, Father, I have sinned against heaven, and before 
thee, and am no more worthy to be called thy son : make 
me as one of thy hired servants." The change is wrought 
immediately within him. But what change ? Xot a change 
of place ; he has done nothing yet but think and feel. Xot 
a change in his outer man : neither time nor miracle has 
repaired the waste of dissipation in his body. Xot a 
complete revolution yet in all the courses and tendencies 
of his thoughts and desires, for it takes time to swing 
all these round in the new-born man, so that they shall 
play spontaneously and harmoniously with the motions 
of the Spirit in the " new creature." But a change in 
his relation* to his ((dine and his father's house. In that 
point, which is the decisive point in every character, the 
change is entire. Before, every longing impulse, passion, 



THE PRODIGAL SON. 425 

from intellectual curiosity down to fleshly Inst, looked 
for its indulgence away from home, which means away 
from God. Obeying that choice, every step bore him 
literally aicay. Place is not essential at first, but desti- 
nation is essential. Distance is not the principal thing ; 
direction is. The first sign and proof of the inward 
transformation is in the character of the first thought 
and desire. Before, it was to get away from the father 
and forget him ; now, it is to get home and abide with 
him. 

Mark the spirit with which the young man returns ! 
He does not feign an excuse and go with a falsehood 
in his mouth. He does not say, "I have been very un- 
fortunate ; I have been robbed of my property, have 
been deceived by swindlers, or had a shipwreck at 
sea." Nor does he plead his youth and indiscretion, and 
say, " Though I have done wrong, I have a good heart." 
No such wretched excuses as unhumbled sinners make 
does he purpose to present. He sees that while sin 
injures the sinner himself, its main heinousness lies in 
the fact that it is committed " against heaven" the God 
of heaven — against the high authority of God and 
against the wonderful goodness of God. Hence he 
will own his guilt, and in true repentance he will say, 
" Against thee, thee only have I sinned, and done this 
evil in thy sight." 

He feels also that he has justly forfeited all claim to 
a filial relation, and acknowledges this with shame and 
sorrow. And yet, let it be observed, he does not abjure, 
or even ignore, his sonship, but only denies bis worthi- 
ness lo 1m- recognized as a son. This is evident from 
tie' repetition of the word father, the utterance of' which 
now is so unlike the hypocritical use of it when he 

36 



426 THE PARABLES OF JESUS. 

claimed his portion of the estate, as well as from the 
clause, "make me as one of thy hired servants." For 
the first time a filial spirit is awakened in him, and 
although the terms of his request look to being treated 
as a hired servant, yet there is evidently a yearning 
desire to be received again to the bosom of his father, 
that he may share in his affection, if not retrieve the 
position which he formerly occupied in the family. 
Thus will he come, feeling the plague of his heart, 
"poor in spirit," with genuine conviction and humility, 
and hoping in the mercy of him who is still his father. 
And thus will, and thus does, every true penitent come, 
making full confession of his sin, sincerely admitting 
that he is unworthy of the divine mercy and grace, 
and yet hoping through that mercy to receive the 
adoption of son or daughter of the Lord God Almighty. 
"And he arose, and came to his father." The coming 
is the giving back of his love and allegiance to his 
heavenly Father — the surrender to God of the sov- 
ereignty of his soul, which, in the outset, he had 
determined to retain to himself. No doubt the Spirit 
is in it all, yet the soul gives itself up. The Spirit 
works for us by working in us and through us, and 
his agency is not such as we can distinguish apart 
from the common operation of our faculties. Hence, 
if we wish the Spirit to lead us to give back our souls 
to God, we must ourselves seek to make this spiritual 
surrender. When we do we shall discover that he has 
been beforehand with us— has already anticipated us 
with his quickening grace. 

Love, deep love, often led the father's steps to some 
rising ground, where he repaired, and, with a heart 
yearning for his son, turned his eyes in the direction in 



THE PRODIGAL SON. 427 

which the Prodigal went off, hoping to see him return. 
One day, when on his watch-post, he descries a new 
object in the distance. He watches it. It moves, it 
advances. It is a man : it may be his son. His heart 
beats quick. One long, earnest, steadfast gaze, and — 
joy of joys ! happy hour, often prayed for and come at 
last ! — the keen eye of love recognizes him : it is the 
Prodigal coming back. "And when he was yet a 
great way off, his father saw him, and had compassion, 
and ran and fell on his neck, and kissed him. And 
the son said unto him, Father, I have sinned against 
heaven and before thee, and am no more worthy to be 
called thy son. But the father said to his servants, 
Bring forth the best robe and put it on him, and put 
a ring on his hand, and shoes on his feet, and bring 
hither the fatted calf and kill it, and let us eat and be 
merry. For this my son was dead and is alive again ; 
he was lost and is found." 

Every circumstance here mentioned shows the mercy 
and kindness of the tender-hearted father. Even when 
he saw his son a great way off he had eomjxtssion. Pie 
had grieved over his lost one. The pity with which he 
regarded him as he set forth is doubled now when he 
sees him returning. He knew well what would surely 
happen to his child as he saw him go, but now he be- 
holds him in the depth of his trouble, weariness, faint- 
ness and misery, and his compassion arises with double 
tenderness in his heart. Regardless of his own age and 
dignity, he runs to meet him. 

How exquisite is this touch of simple story in the 
parable ! Think of the Prodigal. The last few steps 
will not only be when he is wearied with bis journey, 
but jus! as lif approaches his home misgivings may 



428 Til E PARABLES OF JESUS. 

arise: "Will my father receive me? Even as a hired 
servant"? Will lie admit me? What if, after all, I be 
turned away from his door? It is what I may justly 
expect, for it is what I merit ; but if it be so my heart 
will break, and I must lie down and die." 

His loving, pitying father spared him this. lie pre- 
vented these thickly-gathering thoughts from pressing 
still more deeply on his heart, and without a word, but 
in the tenderness of that silent love which is often more 
eloquent than language, he fed on his neck and kissed 
him* 

The loving reception of the Prodigal by his father — 
so unexpected, so undeserved — does not change his 
mind from its now and blessed condition of repentance. 
This abounding goodness of his parent does not quench 
his purpose of sin-confession. Xo ! Even with his 
father's arms around him, and the soft kiss of love and 
forgiveness on his cheek, he breaks forth into his heart- 
felt acknowledgment of his sin : "Father, I have sinned 
against heaven, and in thy sight, and am no more worthy 
to be called thy son. He did not, indeed, as one has ob- 
served, say all that he once intended ; he did not say, 
make me as one of thy hired servants ; for this was the 
one troubled element of his repentance, this purpose of 

" ;: " Admirably has one said here : " The coming out of the father to 
meet his son figuratively exhibits the sending of the Son." All the 
Way to the cross of Calvary has God come, running to meet sinners. 
The cross is the meeting-place between the righteous God and the re- 
pentant prodigal. In Christ the Father has come as far as he right- 
eously can come to save sinners, and when the sinner is by faith in 
Christ also, then is he received by God. In him! mark that! Till 
we are " in him " ( tod has not met us, but when we mute ourselves to 
him by simple trust, then we too are in him, and the Father em- 
braces llfi. 



THE PRODIGAL SON. 429 

shrinking back from his father's love and from the free 
grace which would restore to him all. In his dropping 
of these words, in his willingness to be blessed by his 
father to the uttermost if such was his father's pleasure, 
there is beautiful evidence that the grace which he had 
already received he had not received in vain. 

Let us not fail to perceive the important truth which 
is taught by the Prodigal's confessing and deploring his 
sin even when it was forgiven and he was assured of 
his father's love. It is this : a sense of God's kindness 
is the spring of deepest sorrow, and the repentance that 
succeeds forgiveness is truer and deeper than any which 
precedes it. " The repentance that ncedeth not to be 
repented of" has its truest emblem in the rivers that, 
lending flowers and emerald verdure to their banks, 
wind through the valleys of the Alps. It is not when 
stern winter howls, but in spring and the sweet summer- 
time, when birds are singing, and flowers are breathing 
odors, and the sun from azure skies pours down his 
beams od the icy blossoms of the mountains, that the 
rivers, fed by melted snows, rising and overflowing all 
their banks, roll their mightiest torrents to the lakes. 
And so it is when a sense of God's love and peace and 
forgiveness is poured into our hearts that they thaw 
and soften and melt into streams of fullest sorrow. 

It would seem that the father interrupted his son in 
his confession. While yet he has scarcely acknowledged 
hi- -in the father issues a joyful command to the ser- 
vants : Bring forth the best robe and put it on him, and 
put a ring on his hand and shoes on his feet, these all 
being the ornaments noi of the slave, but of the free — 
all, therefore, speaking of his restoration to his former 
dignity and liis lost privileges. < )r if we cannot suppose 



430 



THE PARABLES OF JESUS. 



the Roman custom which accompanied the lifting up of 
a slave to a freeman's rank to have been familiarly known 
iu Palestine, or to be here alluded to, yet the giving of 
the robe and ring were ever accounted, in the East, 

amongst the highest tokens of favor and honor. The 
fatted calf must be killed and all must rejoice. Was 
there not a cause? This my son, said the happy father, 
was dead, and is alive again ; he ivas lost, and is found. 
Thus is it with the penitent sinner. God sees him 
while yet a great way off. He sees the tear which he 
hastily wipes away as if he were ashamed of it ; he 
hears the prayer which he breathes so faintly and with 
such little faith ; he sees him when just beginning to 
repent. He has been looking on him in all his sin and 
in all his sorrow, hoping that he would repent; and now 
he sees the first gleam of grace, and he beholds it with 
joy. Never warder on the lonely castle-top saw the first 
gray light of morning with more joy than that with 
which God beholds the first desire in the penitent's 
heart. Never physician rejoiced more when he saw the 
first heaving of the lungs in one that was supposed to be 
dead than God rejoices over such a sinner, now that he 
sees the first token for good. " He looketh upon men, 
and if any say, ' I have sinned and perverted that which 
was right, and it profited me not,' he will deliver his soul 
from going into the pit." Ephraim bemoaned himself 
thus: "Thou hast chastised me, and I was chastised, as 
a bullock unaccustomed to the yoke : turn thou me, and 
J shall be turned, for thou art the Lord my God. Surely 
after that I was turned I repented, and after that I was 
instructed I smote upon my thigh : I was ashamed, yea, 
even confounded, because I did bear the reproach of my 
youth." In what language did the Lord notice this 



THE PRODIGAL SON. 431 

self-condemned penitent? "Is Ephraim my dear son? 
Is he a pleasant child ? For since I spake against him, 
I do earnestly remember him still : therefore my bowels 
are troubled for him, I will surely have mercy upon 
him, saith the Lord." The divine conduct as displayed 
in this passage is a direct counterpart to that of the father 
in the parable. The Lord deals with repentant Ephraim 
as the father deals with his returning Prodigal. He 
gives him a name and a place among his children. 

So, we repeat, God deals with every repentant sinner. 
When the heart is broken and contrite, when it cries for 
mercy and pleads nothing but the blood of Jesus Christ 
in its favor, — then the controversy between God and the 
sinner is over. The sinner submits to the righteousness 
of God, and the Lord, who delighteth in mercy, can then 
show mercy to him consistently with his other glorious 
perfections. The breach is healed, peace is restored. 
The sinner is pardoned and accepted in the Beloved, 
and all the glorious blessings and privileges of the gos- 
pel, the children's portion, are conferred upon him. His 
rage "1' degradation disappear, and he is by the minister- 
ing hand of faith clothed in the robe, " the best robe," 
of Christ's perfect righteousness, so that he can exclaim 
with Isaiah, " I will greatly rejoice in the Lord ; my soul 
shall be joyful in my God ; for he hath clothed me with 
the garments of salvation, he hath covered me with the 
robe of righteousness." 

Does it seem strange that God should do so much for 
sinners? Strange as it may seem, it is strangely true, 
lor this is what the parable teaches. The worst sinners 
maybe saved if tiny will come to God in contrition and 
faith in Jesus, in whom we are accepted. Look at the 
staggering drunkard in the alehouse. Is there a possi- 



432 THE PARABLES OF JESUS. 

bility that one day he shall stand among the fairesi sons 
of light? Possibility? Ay, certainty, if he repents and 
tarns from the error of his ways. Hear you yon curser 
and -wearer? See you the man who labels himself as a 
servant of hell, and is not ashamed to do so? Is it pos- 
sible that he shall one day share the bliss of the re- 
deemed ? Possible? Ay, more; it is sure if he tnrneth 
from his wickedness. Such is the promise of a God 
that "doeth wonders :" " Let the wicked forsake his way, 
and the unrighteous man his thoughts: and let him re- 
turn unto the Lord, and he will have mercy upon him, 
and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon." 

Turn now to a sad contrast. The elder son was in the 
field, busied about earthly things, and in the experience 
of his own heart far removed from the feelings of a par- 
doned sinner. He knew nothing of* this joy in his father's 
house, which, however, was not concealed from him, for 
the sound of it broke upon his ears. When told by the 
servants the cause of the rejoicing, he was angry, from 
envy and heartlessness toward his brother — full of indig- 
nation at the tender love of the father, into whose state 
of feeling he could not transport himself because of his 
cold, selfish and contracted disposition. He complained 
that his father treated the returning Prodigal too well, 
and that he himself had not been treated so well as his 
merits deserved. He could not prevail upon himself to 
call his brother by the name of "brother." He thinks 
the worst of his brother, and describes his guilt in the 
grossest manner, so that the kindness shown him by his 
father might appear the highest injustice, partiality and 
unfairness toward himself. It is a painful picture, but 
a very instructive one. 

For one thing, this elder brother is an exact picture 



THE PRODIGAL SON. 433 

of the Jews of our Lord's time, who could not bear 
the idea of their Gentile younger brother being made 
partaker of their privileges. For another thing, the 
elder brother is an exact type of the scribes and Phari- 
sees of our Lord's time, for they objected that he re- 
ceived sinners and ate with them, and they murmured 
because he opened the door of salvation to publicans 
and harlots. Last, but not least, the elder brother is 
an exact type of a large class in the Church of Christ 
in the present day. There are thousands on every side 
who dislike a free, full, unfettered gospel to be preach- 
ed. They are always complaining that ministers throw 
the door too wide open, and that the doctrine of grace 
tends to promote licentiousness. Whenever we come 
across such persons let us remember that their voice is 
the voice of the " elder brother." 

Let us beware of this spirit infecting our own hearts. 
It arises partly from ignorance. Men begin by not 
seeing their own sinfulness and unworthiness, and then 
they fancy that they are much better than others, and 
that nobody is worthy to be put by their side. It arises 
partly from lack of charity : men are wanting in kind 
feeling toward others, and then they are unable to take 
pleasure when others are saved. Above all, it arises 
from a thorough misunderstanding of the true nature 
of gospel forgiveness : the man who really feels that 
we all stand by grace and are all debtors, and that the 
l>r-t of us has nothing to boast of, and has nothing 
which he has not received, — such a man will not be 
found talking like the "elder brother." 

In the words, Son, thou, art ever with me, and all, 
that I have 18 tiiiue, the Saviour argues from what Mas 
granted, as we say, although he by no means allowed 



434 THE PARABLES OF JESUS. 

that which for the sake of conviction he had yielded. 
But that he might convince them the more of error 
he grants, as it were, that they did excel in every vir- 
tuous pursuit, yet that, even this being granted, it was 
improper and unjust to pursue with malevolent and 
bitter feeling publicans and sinners when they became 
truly penitent and returned to a better course. 

Let the man who is afraid to repent consider well 
the parable now under view, and be afraid no more. 
There is nothing on God's part to justify his fears. 
An open door is set before him, a free pardon awaits 
him. " If we confess our sins, God is faithful and just 
to forgive us our sins, and cleanse us from all un- 
righteousness." Let also the man who is ashamed to 
repent consider this precious utterance of the Saviour, 
and cast shame aside.- What though the world mocks 
and jests at his repentance? While man is mocking 
angels are rejoicing. 

Have we repented ourselves? This, after all, is the 
principal question which concerns us. What shall it 
profit us to know Christ's love if we do not use it? 
"If ye know these things, happy are ye if ye do 
them." 

" Lo, through the gloom of guilty fears 
My faith discerns a dawn of grace; 
The Sun of Righteousness appears 
In Jesus' reconciling face. 

" My suffering, slain and risen Lord! 
In deep distress I turn to thee ; 
I claim acceptance in thy word ; 
My God ! my God ! forsake not me I" 



THE *UMM I STEWARD.* 



Here, in our souls, we treasure up the -wealth 
Fraud cannot filch nor waste destroy. The more 
'Tis spent, the more we have — the sweet affections, 
The heart's religion, the diviner instincts 
Of what we shall be -when the world is dust." 

435 






j And he said also unto his disciples, There was a certain rich man 
which had a steward ; and the same was accused unto him that he had 

2 wasted his goods. And he called him, and said unto him, How is it 
that I hear this of thee ? give an account of thy stewardship : for thou 

j mayest be no longer steward. Then the steward said within himself, 
What shall I do ? for my lord taketh away from me the stewardship : 

4 I cannot dig ; to -beg I am ashamed. I am resolved what to do, that, 
'when I am put out of the stewardship, they may receive me into their 

j houses. So he called every one of his lord's debtors unto him, and 
6 said tuito the first, How much owest thou unto my lord ? And he 
said, An hundred measures of oil. And he said unto him, Take 
J thy bill, and sit dozen quickly, and write fifty . Then said he to an- 
other, And how much owest thou ? And he said, An hundred meas- 
ures of wheat. And he said unto him, Take thy bill, and write 

5 four-score. And the lord commended the unjust steward, because he 
had done wisely: for the children of this world are in their geuera- 

g tion wiser than the children of light. And I say unto you, Make to 

yourselves friends of the mammon of unrighteousness ; that 'when ye 

10 fail, they may receive you into everlasting habitations. He that is 

faithful in that -which is least, is faithful also in much ; and he that 

ii is unjust in the least, is unjust also in much. Jf therefore ye have 

not been faithful in the unrighteous mammon, who will commit to 

j 2 your trust the true riches ? And if ye have not been faithful in that 

'which is another man's, who shall give you that which is your own ? 

Luke xvi. 1-12. 
436 






THE UNJUST STEWARD. 



r I ^HOSE who, in the preceding parables, are regarded 
-■- as being found and restored to their Father's favor 
and protection are now taught how they are to fulfill 
the obligations and duties growing out of their new 
relationship to God. The entrance upon the divine life 
is the theme of the preceding parables ; the duty and 
ultimate reward of active fidelity constitute the theme 
of the one before us. 

Our Lord's design was to set forth the impossibility 
of " serving God and mammon;" also to show the right 
use of wealth and the superiority of the claims of the 
future world to those of the present. 

The Master speaks now more solemnly urith his dis- 
ciples, who had been publicans and sinners, and more 
severely than he had done for them to others. He 
shows to the lost but now recovered sons of the house 
how the Father, it is true, at their return gives a feast, 
but how they also, after having been refreshed at the 
table, must return to an immediate and faithful fulfill- 
ment of the obligations imposed upon them. If they 
formerly had been hirelings of the Romans, the Saviour 
will now have them consider themselves as stewards of 
God, to administer faithfully in their earthly treasure 
his property. 

37 * 437 



438 THE PARABLES OF JESUS. 

The " certain rich man " here mentioned is not such a 
rich man as Ave read of in another parable, preparing to 
build new barns and storehouses in the miserable hope 
of a future of peace, prosperity and comfort; nor such 
a rich man as is set forth in the parable at the close of 
this chapter, who was " clothed in purple and fine linen, 
and fared sumptuously every day ;" but a rich man who 
was careful of " his goods." He docs not appear to be 
exceedingly anxious as to their increase, nor yet lavish 
and luxurious in their expenditure, but lie takes good 
care not to lose sight of them. He is obliged to trust in 
others so far, but his is no blind confidence. He keeps 
his cars and his eyes open to all that concerns his affairs, 
and it will not be long before he detects what is wrong, 
nor will he lose time in punishing the wrong-doer. He 
is, in fact, in the worldly sense of the term, a careful 
man, one who looks well after his own interests, and is 
not the less fond of " his goods " because he does not 
appear to be in such a hurry as some to increase them 
or as others to spend them. 

The " steward " of this great man was an agent who 
received his master's rents, which were paid in kind and 
not in money, and through whose hands all his master's 
receipts passed. In the fact of his having to employ such 
an officer we learn incidentally how evenly balanced are 
the various conditions of life in a community, and how 
little of substantial advantage wealth can confer on its 
possessor. As your property increases your personal con- 
trol over it diminishes ; the more you possess, the more 
you must entrust to others. Those who do their own 
work are not troubled with disobedient servants; those 
who look after their own affairs arc not troubled with 
unfaithful overseers. 



THE UNJUST STEYSARD. 439 

Truly solemn is the representation of man's relation 
to God which is here made. We are his stewards. 
Everything that man has, especially in earthly goods, 
whether it may have come to him by inheritance, in- 
dustry or any turn of fortune, is a gift committed to 
him by God, not a property with which he can do after 
the will of his own heart. 

It is more easy to understand this with regard to a 
rich man than a poor man, especially for those who are 
poor themselves. We sometimes hear it said about 
one who is very rich, " He does not do much good with 
his money," as if he were bound to do good Avith his 
money because he has so much. But why the rich man 
only ? Why not the poor also ? Both are God's stew- 
ards. To the rich man God has committed much, to 
the poor man little ; but the poor man is just as much 
bound to spend his little aright as the rich man is to 
spend his wealth. Besides, money is not all: time and 
health and strength are goods also. Every one has 
something ; every one is a steward of God. 

It is not to be expected that we should affix a distinct 
idea to every term in a parable. There are some parts 
of almost every composition of this kind which belong 
to what may be called the drapery of it; and were we 
to attempt to interpret them we should soon run into 
the mazes of folly. Hence the words, "the same was 
accused unto him that he had wasted his goods," which 
represent the master as needing that the ill-conduct of 
hi- steward should come to his ears through a third 
party, must be regarded as belonging to the earthly 
set ling forth of the truth, because no such necessity 
exists on God's part in relation to the conduct of his 
creatures, The accusation brought against the steward 



440 



THE PARABLES OF JESUS. 



was thai he wasted or scattered his muster's goods — that 
lie administered them without due fidelity, turning them 
to private ends— wasting them, perverting them from 
their intended purpose. 

The master, or the lord of the steward, sends for 
him, and addresses him in language severe from its 
gentleness: "How is it that I hear this of thee?" 
Never is rebuke so poignant as when it is conveyed in 
gentle accents. That rebuke pierces the deepest which 
is clothed in the language of love. " How is it that I 
hear this of thee?" — thee, whom I had entrusted with 
all ; thee, whom I have treated as a confidential servant; 
thee, whom I have selected for thine honesty and placed 
at my right hand? How is it that I hear this of thee? I 
am surprised, I am disappointed, I am grieved. It is in 
sorrow that I find thee guilty. We must part. Give 
an account of thy stewardship ; thou mayest no longer 
remain in the office the responsibilities of which thou 
hast violated. Get ready, therefore, all thine accounts 
and lay them before me without delay. 

Miserable must have been that man's feeling. Hon- 
esty has within it an inner radiance that makes the 
blackest clouds of affliction bright, but conscious crime, 
with desolation without and no compensatory joy within, 
must be misery. 

When the steward rendered his account a short 
respite was still allowed him which he might employ, 
and which is to be referred to the period of life granted 
to every one, always uncertain and never long in con- 
tinuance. This respite the man occupied in an effort 
to protect himself from impending ruin. He had no 
sense, of the baseness of his conduct and ingratitude 



THE UNJUST STEWARD. 441 

selfishness he sets about making the best of the circum- 
stances, and trying from the wreck to get something that 
would float him to a quiet and peaceful haven. 

Mark the traits that indicate the man's shrewdness ! 
He counsels with himself: " What shall I do f" Here 
is the^rs^ trait. He is now no longer careless about his 
future state. 

" My lord taheth away from me the stewardship" He 
does not conceal from himself the greatness and nearness 
of the danger ; he sees his criminality, together with the 
righteousness of his master ; he believes also the word 
spoken to him, that he could no longer be steward. 

" I cannot dig ; to beg I am ashamed" He casts about 
for other means and ways of doing for himself, but 
throws them away as not suitable. He could not dig ; 
he was ashamed to beg, his pride not permitting him. 

" That they may receive me into their houses." He 
knows what he desires — namely, an easy securement of 
his future support. 

"So he called every one of his lord's debtors." He does 
not stand with mere resolutions and purposes ; what he 
bas conceived he executes. 

" How much owest thou unto my lord f" He knew well 
enough, but put the question in order that the debtor by 
his answer might be made to acknowledge the greatness 
of his debt (his rent), and consequently afterward the 
greatness of the part remitted to him, the greatness of 
the favor shown him, that he might also feel himself the 
more distinctly bound to a grateful requital. 

"Sit down quickly." He rightly understood and em- 
ployed bifl shori time. " Take thy bill" — thy bond, thy 
lease, which demonstrates the strictness of thy obligation 
and the largeness of the sums remitted. " Write fifty" — 



442 



THE PARABLES OF JESUS. 



the new act of unrighteousness flows from the earlier; 
the sinner will help himself by sin, and thus sinks always 
the deeper, for every sin becomes the seed of another, 
while the moral feeling always gets more hardened, con- 
science less tender. 

A similar course was taken by the steward with the 
other debtors. Whether this deceiver was again deceived 
by his accomplices in guilt, whether he actually attained 
his end or not, whether the deceit practiced by him and 
discovered by his master was punished so as to disappoint 
him of his design, we must not inquire into, as the par- 
able here ends. 

"And the lord commended the unjust steward, because 
he had done wisely" It should always be noted in read- 
ing this parable that the expression "lord" here does 
not mean the Lord Jesus Christ. It is the " master " or 
" lord " of the unjust steward. It should be remembered 
that the steward whom our Lord describes is not set be- 
fore us as a pattern of morality. He is distinctly called 
the "unjust steward." The Lord Jesus never meant to 
sanction unfair dealing between man and man. . This 
steward cheated his master. It was his shrewd fore- 
thought that struck his master and led to his commenda- 
tion of him as a far-seeing man. But there is no proof 
that his master was -pleased with his conduct. He did 
not praise the servant for faithfulness, but for the clever- 
ness with which he had managed his case. It is the 
commendation which one whose house has been robbed 
during the night might bestow in the morning upon the 
robber after noticing how adroitly he had opened the 
locks and carried off the booty. Above all, we should 
not fail to notice that there is not a word to show that 
the man was praised by Christ. The parable is in this 



THE UNJUST STEWARD. 443 

respect entirely equivalent to that of the Friend at Mid- 
night and that of the Unjust Judge. As in those two 
parables the efficacy of prayer is the tiling that is un- 
folded, so here prudence is enforced by a similar conclu- 
sion. The argument is, "If an unjust prudence is com- 
mended by men, how much more will the Lord commend 
a holy prudence !" 

We come now to the keynote of the parable : " The 
children of this world are in their generation wiser than 
the children of light." The expression here used is one 
very common in Scripture. We read of the " children 
of disobedience," " the children of wrath." Nor is there 
any difficulty in understanding these phrases. By the 
"children of disobedience" are clearly meant the dis- 
obedient. The "children of wrath" are such as by sin 
have incurred the wrath of God. So by " the children 
of this world" wc understand worldly persons — those 
who are devoted to the cares, the pleasures or the pur- 
suits of the present life. By "the children of light" 
arc meant religious persons — those who, having been 
"some time in darkness, are now light in the Lord," 
whose understandings have been enlightened to see the 
truth as it is in Jesus — who, no longer walking after the 
course of this world, profess to be seeking a better coun- 
try, that is, a heavenly. Such are the persons of whom 
our Lord says, "The children of this world are in their 
generation wiser than the children of light." The}- are 
wiser in their way; with the end they have before them 
they show much more shrewdness and cleverness in their 
efforts to attain thai end than do the children of light. 

Alas! how true is this! And how sad a proof does it 

furnish of the imperfeci influence which belief in eternal 
things has upon the heart ! You see one man rising early 



•HI THE PARABLES OF JESUS. 

and late, and eating the 1 tread of carefulness, for the sake 
of some little present object of desire; he is sagacious in 
planning how to get it, diligent in pursuing it, devoting 

every faculty of mind and body to the ensurance of suc- 
cess. The chemist in his laboratory from morning's dawn 
till midnight hour is pursuing his analyses and combina- 
tions. The astronomer, in his observatory morning, noon 
and night, if a comet is in the remote horizon catches the 
first beam of it. The lawyer, the physician, the sailor, 
the soldier — with what unflagging energy do they pros- 
ecute the objects that arc important in their judgment! 

Turning now to those who profess to be, and who 
really are, aiming at an incorruptible inheritance, how 
are they found? Too often languid in prayer; back- 
ward in addressing themselves to duty, and soon wearied 
in discharging it; slow to resolve on self-denial, and too 
glad of any excuse to escape from it. Is not this too 
faithful a picture of our negligence in that work which 
we yet believe to be all-important ? Instead of " press- 
ing forward " with a noble zeal to lay up large treasure 
in heaven, the utmost we aspire to is but to escape from 
hell. Well may we take a lesson from the sagacity and 
diligence with which the steward provided against the 
reverse with which he was threatened, and which the 
children of this world show in seeking those pleasures 
on which they set their minds. How are we reproached 
by their untiring activity! How they pain us with the 
sight of our spiritual indolence ! How sluggish we are 
touching " (he vast concerns of an eternal state"! 

"We, for whose sake all Nature stands, 
And stars their courses move — 
We l<»r whose sake the angel-bands 
Come flying from above, — 



THE UNJUST STEWARD. 445 

" We for whom God the Son came down, 
And labored for our good, — 
How careless to secure the crown 
He purchased with his blood !" 

We ought not to forget, either, a more special lesson 
which our Lord draws from this parable : " Make to 
yourselves friends of the mammon of unrighteousness, 
that when ye fail, they may receive you into everlast- 
ing habitations." The word " mammon " is Syriac, or, 
according to Augustine, Punic. Riches, here termed 
"the mammon of unrighteousness," or the false, fleet- 
ing, uncertain riches of earth, are, so long as unused, 
passive : it is riches in motion which gives them a 
definite character. They move under two laws and in 
two directions — the law of selfishness and the law of 
love ; the direction toward God and whatever tends to 
advance his glory, and the direction toward earth and 
whatever abets its lusts and pleasures. As, then, we 
cannot live in the world without making use of " mam- 
mon " after some sort, we must use it so as to make 
friends by it — not consuming it upon our lusts, not 
squandering it in frivolous schemes and pursuits, not 
hoarding it up for family aggrandizement, for then it 
truly becomes unrighteous mammon ; but we must ap- 
propriate it to the works of mercy, feeding the hungry, 
relieving the poor, ministering to the heirs of salvation, 
extending the gospel of Christ, thus putting it out to 
interest in God's service, so that in the end we shall 
receive unfading riches in heaven. We are, as Chris- 
tians, to make such a use of all worldly things that 
they shall not rise up in judgment against us to 
condemn us, but be an evidence in our favor that we 
sought to serve God with the very things which men 

38 



446 THE PARABLES OF JESUS. 

reserve to themselves. That when ye fail — die, or 
leave life — death is for the temporal life what the dis- 
missal from office was to the steward, a termination of the 
calling hitherto maintained — they (that is, the friends 
you have made by the sanctified use of your earthly 
resources) may welcome you into everlasting habitations. 
Not into a temporary shelter, which was all the steward 
procured for himself, but into the building of God, the 
" house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens." 

It is right for us to oppose the superstition that ex- 
pects by alms and by money paid for masses to smooth 
the spirit's path to peace beyond the grave ; but when 
we have refused to make money directly the price of 
our admission into heaven, we have not exhausted our 
duty in regard to its bearing on our eternal weal. The 
property and money and occupations of time may in- 
strumentally affect for good or evil our efforts to lay 
up the true riches. According as they are employed, 
they may become a stumbling-stone over which their 
possessor shall fall, or a shield to cover his head from 
some fiery darts of the wicked one. 

AVhat though mammon — the world — be adverse to 
the interests of our souls? If we are believers in 
Christ, adversary though . it be, we may make it our 
friend. A skillful seaman, when once fairly out to sea, 
can make the wind that blows right in his face bear 
him onward to the very point from which it blows. 
Thus, if we were skillful, watchful and earnest we 
might make the unrighteous mammon our friend ; we 
might so turn our side to each of its impulses that, 
willing or unwilling, conscious or unconscious, it should 
from day to day drive us nearer home, the blessed world 
above which God has prepared for his people. 



THE UNJUST STEWARD. 447 

" He that is faithful in that which is least is faithful 
also in much ; and he that is unjust in the least is un- 
just also in much. If therefore ye have not been faith- 
ful in the unrighteous mammon, who will commit to 
your trust the true riches? And if ye have not been 
faithful in that which is another man's, who shall give 
you that which is your own?" TJiat which is least is 
the deceitful mammon; that which is another mail's is 
the wealth of this present world, which is not the Chris- 
tian's own nctr his proper inheritance. The "much," 
the "true riches," is that which is your own, the true 
riches of God's inheritance. The wealth of this world 
is "another's," forfeited by sin — only put into our 
hands to be accounted for. Jesus here speaks from 
a heavenly point of view. He calls the blessings of 
salvation by antithesis the true, because they are not, 
like the unrighteous mammon, untrustworthy and un- 
satisfying, but fully deserve the name of genuine and 
true good. He who is dishonest and unfaithful in the 
discharge of his duties on earth must not expect to have 
heavenly treasures or to be saved. 

In regard to the expression, '[faithful in that which is 
least," it lias well been observed that true faithfulness 
knows no distinction between great and small duties. 
From the highest point of view — that is, from God's 
point of view — nothing is great, nothing small, as we 
measure. The worth and the quality of an action 
depend on its motive only, and not at all on its prom- 
inence or on any other of the accidents which we are 
always ;i|>t to adopt as the tests of the greatness of our 
deeds. The largeness of the consequences of anything 
that we do is no measure of the true greatness or true 
value of it. Nothing is small that a spirit can do; 



448 



THE PARABLES OF JESUS. 



nothing is small that can be done from a mighty motive. 
The least action of life can be as surely done from the 
loftiest motive as the highest and the noblest. Faith- 
fulness measures acts as God measures them. True 
conscientiousness deals with our duties as God deals 
with them. 



*TfiE*M2*IAN*AND*LiZMU&* 



Yet know, -vain skeptics— know the Almighty mind, 
"Who breathed, on man a portion of his fire, 

Bade his free soul, by earth nor time confined, 
To heaven, to immortality, aspire. 

Nor shall the pile of hope his mercy reared 
By vain philosophy be e'er destroyed: 

Eternity, by all or wished or feared, 
Shall be by all or suffered or enjoyed." 

33* 449 



iq There was a certain rich man, which was clothed in purple and 

20 Jine linen, and fared sumptuously every day : And there was a 
certain beggar named Lazarus, which was laid at his gate, full of 

21 sores, And desiring to be fed with the crumbs which fell from the 
rich man's table: moreover, the dogs came and licked his sores. 

22 And it came to pass, that the beggar died, and was carried by the 
angels into Abraham's bosom : the rich man also died, and was 

23 buried. And in hell he lift up his eyes, being in torments, and 

24 seeth Abraham afar off, and Lazarus in his bosom. And he cried 
and said, Father Abraham, have mercy on me, and send Lazarus, 
that he may dip the lip of his finger in water, and cool my tongue : 

25 for L am tormented in this flame. But Abraham said, Son, re- 
member that thou in thy lifetime receivedst thy good things, and 
likewise Lazarus evil things : but now he is co/nforted, and thou 

26 art tormented. And beside all this, between us and you there is a 
great gulf fixed : so that they which would pass from hence to you 
cannot; neither can they pass to us, that would come from thence. 

27 Then he said, L pray thee therefore, father, that thou wouldesl 

28 send him to my father's house : For L have five brethren ; that he 
may testify tinto them, lest they also come into this place of torment. 

2Q Abraham saith unto him, They have Moses and the prophets ; let 

jo them hear them. And he said, Nay, father Abraham : but if one 

J/ went unto them from the dead, they will repent. And he said unto 

him, Lf they hear not Moses and the prophets, neither will they be 

persuaded, though one rose from the dead. 

Luke xvi. 19-31. 
450 



THE RICH MAN AND LAZARUS. 



IpKOM the very earliest days it has been a matter of 
-■- dispute whether this portion of our Lord's teach- 
ing ought to be regarded as a parable or a real history. 
It is, however, of no real importance to inquire whether 
this is the history of men who actually lived at Jerusa- 
lem, or whether our Lord borrowed only general char- 
acters and worked them into a parable. In either 
case the moral is the same. It cannot for a moment be 
supposed that Jesus would use any embellishment, even 
in a parable, that would leave any impression on an 
honest mind inconsistent with truth. If the parable 
in part consists of drapery, it is not the drapery of error, 
but of truth. 

This " certain rich man " was " clothed in purple " — 
which was the color in that age appropriate to princely 
rank — and " fine linen," which was then, because the 
manufacture of it was in its infancy, considered a proof 
of the greatest wealth or greatest luxury. He also 
"fared sumptuously." Not that he was a glutton or 
recklessly extravagant, but he lived well, as a rich man 
could afford to do. And this rich display was not 
reserved for special days or festivals; it was his ordi- 
nary style. 

It is important, in order that the edge of the parable 



452 THE F ARABLES OF JESUS. 

may be retained, that the character of this man, as evil, 
should not be exaggerated. He is not said to have been 
dishonest, or a false accuser, or an oppressor of the 
poor, or avaricious, or a spendthrift, or an adulterer, 
or a criminal. There is not exhibited to us any pecu- 
liar wickedness in his conduct. The design of the 
parable is to admonish us, not that a monster of wicked- 
ness shall be punished in another world, but that the 
man who does little or no good, and who, though not 
perhaps intemperate or sensual, is yet careless about 
the situation of others and exists only for the indul- 
gence of his own appetites and vanity, shall not escape 
punishment. It shows the danger of living in the 
neglect of duties, though not chargeable with the com- 
mission of crimes, and particularly the danger of con- 
sidering the gifts of Providence as our own property, 
and not as a trust from our Creator to be employed in 
his service (i. e. in doing his will), and for which we 
are accountable to him. 

Three circumstances aggravate the rich man's unchar- 
itableness. There was presented to him at his very 
gate such an object as would have moved any one's pity ? 
a fellow-creature reduced to extreme misery and neces- 
sity, whom a very little relief would have contented. 
Trench says : " This man neglected his fellow-man, 
beheld his sufferings with a careless eye and an unmoved 
heart, yet it was a misery which even the beasts had 
pity on, so that what little they could they did to allevi- 
ate his sufferings. We have, in fact, in the two descrip- 
tions stroke for stroke. Dives is covered with purple 
and fine linen, Lazarus is covered only with sores; the 
one fares sumptuously, the other desires to be fed with 
crumbs : the one has numerous attendants to wait on 






THE RICH MAN AND LAZARUS. 453 

his least caprice, the other only clogs to tend his 
sores." 

Poverty, the neglect and desertion of men, afflictions 
and diseases, form a condition very grievous to nature. 
But how advantageous is this condition with regard to 
heaven ! How much is it to be preferred to that of a 
wicked rich man when God enables us to bear it hum- 
bly and patiently by his grace ! How many wounds in 
the soul do these sores of the body heal, when the hand 
of the sovereign Physician applies them as a remedy to 
the diseases of the heart ! 

It is one of the blessed fruits of the gospel that it 
provides for the poor and suffering. We are apt to 
wonder at the ways of Heaven, and perhaps tempted to 
arraign the conduct of Providence, in endowing so worth- 
less a man as Dives with wealth and prosperity, whilst 
all that diversified the lot of Lazarus was scene after 
scene of poverty and pain. But let us suspend our 
judgment. We see but one link in the great chain of 
providence. We live but in the infancy of being ; the 
great drama of life is but begun. When the curtain be- 
tween the two worlds is withdrawn, the morn will arise 
which will light the Almighty's footsteps in the deep 
and pour full day upon all the paths of his providence. 
In the mean time the true Christian must be ready not 
only to do, but to suffer. He must make up his mind to 
a cheerful acquiescence in the will of God, even if God 
shall be pleased to send him manifold "evil things" in 
hi- outward lot. 

The scene changes, and brings us to the close of the 
lives of these two men. Lazarus died first. No men- 
tion is made of his being buried. His poor diseased 
body was probably hid out of sigh! in any obscure grave 



454 THE PARABLES OF JESUS. 

which the hand of charity might provide for it. But 
his dust Mas previous in the sight of that God in whom 
he trusted, and in the resurrection morning God will 
show him how much. 

" The rich man also died, and was buried." Death is 
no respecter of persons. No earthly resources, however 
great or grand, can shield us from the assault of the 
destroyer. The rich man was buried, we may suppose, 
with much pageantry and pomp. What a contrast in 
the death-scenes here recorded ! The one dies sur- 
rounded by skillful physicians, faithful nurses, officious 
attendants, and is borne to the costly tomb with all the 
insignia of courtly grief; the other passes away alone, is 
coffined in his rags, and, without a mourner to drop a 
tear, is buried out of sight. Thus closes the earthly 
history of the rich man and Lazarus. Here the curtain 
of life drops, and corruption and the worm return both 
to their native dust. 

The scene again changes, and the future, with its vast 
consequences, opens before us. The soul of Lazarus "was 
carried, by the angels into Abraham's bosom." The Jews 
expressed the happiness of the righteous at death in 
three ways : " They go to the garden of Eden," " They 
go to be under the throne of glory," " They go to the 
bosom of Abraham ;" and it was in reference to this 
general idea that our Lord introduced this expression 
to denote the future happiness of Lazarus. He was in 
the bosom of Abraham, "the father of the faithful." 
The poor wretch whom the rich man scorned to have 
at his table was received into the arms of Abraham, 
"the friend of God," resting in the highest felicity 
which the Jewish mind could imagine. He was in the 
Father's house and had joined the company of the holy. 



THE RICH MAN AND LAZARUS. 455 

No so with Dives. He "lifted up his eyes, being in 
toi'ments." The ungodly gravitated, according to his 
kind, into the place of woe. And there he "saw 
Abraham ajar off, and Lazarus in his bosom." The 
Jewish rabbis say that the place of torment and par- 
adise are so situated that what is done in one may be 
seen from the other. The Grecian poets represent the 
abodes of the blest as lying contiguous to the regions 
of the lost, and separated only by a great, impassable 
river or gulf, in such a way that the spirits could talk 
with one another from its opposite banks. Grecian my- 
thologists also tell us that the souls of wicked men lie 
in a river of fire, where they suffer the same torments 
they would have suffered while alive had their bodies 
been burned. It does not follow, however, from these 
resemblances that the parable is formed on the Grecian 
mythology, or that our Lord approved of what the com- 
mon people thought or spoke concerning these matters. 
In parables, provided the doctrines inculcated are strictly 
true, the terms in which they are inculcated may be such 
as are most familiar to the ears of mankind, and the im- 
ages made use of such as they will most readily appre- 
hend. 

Hearken to the cry of the rich man in his anguish ! 
He asks for " a drop of water, that his tongue may be 
cooled" under the intense agony he is suffering, and of 
which only a " flame " could be the proper image. He 
begs, not for entire deliverance, but only for allevia- 
tion. He sues lor mercy who himself had been so un- 
merciful. 

How impressive the reply of Abraham! — "Son, re- 
member, that thou, in thy lifetime, receivedsl thy good 
things." "His good thing* they are called emphatically 









456 THE PARABLES OF JESTS. 

— Ms by peculiar choice. They were the tilings he 
chiefly valued and pitched upon as the most likely to 
make him happy. Having enjoyed them, and actually 
compassed the utmost of his, desires, his happiness was 
at an end. He had had his option, and there was no 
further provision for him in the other world. Nor in- 
deed was it possible that he should find any where he 
had laid up none. Only where men sow may they ex- 
pect to reap, it being infinitely absurd to bury their seed 
in the earth and to expect a crop in heaven." 

" And likewise Lazarus, evil things ; but now he is 
comforted." His afflictions are all past ; he has ex- 
changed his place at the gate for a home in heaven, his 
want for abundant satisfaction, his rags for a robe of 
glory, his obscure and despised condition for the sweet 
society of God and angels and the spirits of the just 
made perfect. 

"And thou art tormented" Thy gorgeous attire has 
given place to a robe of flame ; instead of sumptuous 
fare thou art fed with bitter tears and art gnawed con- 
tinually by a condemning conscience; and instead of 
thy past elegancies and comforts, nothing but torment 
and anguish surround thee. 

Are we, then, to understand the statement that the 
rich man had received his good things in his lifetime, 
and likewise Lazarus evil things, as intimating that there 
is a certain proportion of good and evil allotted to each 
individual by some arbitrary decree of the great Sov- 
ereign of the universe, and that where the good has 
been bestowed during the term of our earthly existenec 
the evil should, as matter of course, be anticipated in 
the life that is to come ? By no means. To put such 
an interpretation upon the words were to make caprice 



THE RICH MAN AND LAZARUS. 407 

the distinguishing characteristic of that God of whom 
it is testified that '''justice and judgment are the habita- 
tion of his throne, yea, that righteousness goeth con- 
tinually before his face." Worldly prosperity is a good 
which many men enjoy independently even of their own 
choice. It may have been their birthright, of which 
they had come into the possession before they were in 
circumstances either to form a wish or to put forth an 
effort for its attainment, or it may have been acquired 
as the result of honest industry. Worldly adversity, on 
the other hand, is an evil which no one would choose 
for its own sake, but which, on the contrary, all men, 
were it in their power, would studiously avoid. To 
make, then, the bestowment of a temporal good a reason 
for the subsequent bestowment of eternal misery, or to 
make the mere infliction of an earthly evil a reason for 
the conferring of an eternal blessing, were to destroy 
the very foundation of the moral government of the 
world. 

The words of Abraham to which we now refer have 
a different meaning. They, as well as the glimpse of the 
rich man's previous history given in the parable, show 
that he was mindful only of present enjoyment, and was 
regardless of the wants of his immortal soul. Of earth- 
ly goods he was in abundant possession. But when he 
bade these adieu he had nothing left. Happiness for- 
sook- him for ever. Not so with Lazarus. On earth 
he was the poorest of the poor; he had nothing which 
he could call his own. Hut he had made wise provision 
for the future; lie had laid up treasures in heaven. 
Now lie bad entered upon their possession, lie was no 
longer Lazarus the poor, but Lazarus the rich, reclining 
at the banquet of bliss with Abraham himself, the father 

39 



458 THE PA BA B L ES F J ES I S. 

of the faithful and the friend of God. His state was 
then one of fixed blessedness, while that of the rich man 
was its very opposite. 

This was not an arbitrary or chance arrangement. 
It resulted from the very nature of the habits, affections 
and moral affinities which marked their earthly life. 
Stier well and strikingly remarks: " The pious Lazarus 
would have remained undamned in patient endurance 
even in these torments ; but even at Abraham's table 
the rich man would have been ill at ease, so that its 
provisions would only have added to his raging fire." 

Memory will follow the soul into the future state. In 
the coming world of vivid intellection and endless medi- 
tation 

" The past lives o'er again 
In its effects, and to the gnilty spirit 
The ever-frowning present is its image." 

" And beside all this," continued Abraham, " between 
us and you there is a great gulf fixed " — a great chasm 
or void is established— " so that they which would pass 
from hence to you cannot " — if any should be so com- 
passionate as to desire to help you, they are not able — 
" neither can they pass to us that would come from 
thence." " We must still continue in an unapproachable 
distance from each other ; the passage is for ever closed ; 
the great gulf is for everted" The righteous will be 
" for ever with the Lord." The wicked shall be " unjust 
8 till » — s l ia l] " go away into everlasting punishment. The 
same word, " eternal," is written on the gate of heaven 
and the gate of hell. There is nothing intermediate 
between heaven and hell. How the doctrine of a purga- 
tory can be reconciled with the verse now under notice 
it is impossible to imagine. How solemn the thought 






THE RICH MAN AND LAZARUS. 459 

that whether a person be happy or miserable in the 
future world, his state is unchangeable ! 

The first prayer of the rich man being refused, he 
offered another petition. Having given himself up to 
his fate, he now appeals from justice to mercy, and begs 
that Lazarus might be sent to his brethren to warn 
them, to testify unto them, the certain truth of the im- 
mortality of the soul and of a future state of rewards and 
punishments. Some have inferred from this request 
that in the future world some good and kind sentiments 
may remain in those who are themselves for ever lost. 
It is more reasonable to suppose that there was in this 
request of the rich man the tormenting thought that he 
had himself been the means, by his example and his 
life, of leading his brothers into careless, irreligious 
habits which were most likely to involve them in eternal 
ruin, and that their presence with him in torment would 
increase his misery. He dreaded the reproaches of those 
whom he had loved in a wrong manner, and thereby 
tnade companions in his misery. How important it is 
to consider what kind of influence we arc exercising on 
tli<; community at large, and especially on those whom 
Providence has placed under our immediate supervision 
and control ! Well will it be for us*to inquire how we 
stand in respect of our example. What is its character ? 
\s it such as commends itself- to the gospel of Christ? 
or is it such as may implicate our own souls in the final 
destruction of the impenitent? Is it such as in that 
mild tendency, which God has ordained serves to draw 
those whom we love ami who return our affection into 
a personal acquaintance with God, with a Redeemer, 
with his Church, with liis blessed Spirit? Js it such as 
may Berve to open the path before them, and determine 






460 THE PARABLES OF JESUS. 

their course heavenward? or is it such as by a process no 
less certain serves to obliterate from their minds the very 
remembrance of these things, and to impart to the world 
around them a vehemence of attraction which they are 
in no wise able to resist? We say not now, How terrible 
is the thought of exposing our own souls to the terror 
of God's righteous indignation and wrath ! We say not, 
How terrible is the thought of terminating our career in 
that dreary chamber where hope dies and the soul shrivels 
amidst an all-pervading desolation ! But in view of what 
is said in the portion of the parable now under notice, 
How terrible is the thought of encountering, in addition 
to our own personal miseries, the agonizing reflection of 
having been accessory in any form to the ruin of others ! 

" Abraham said unto him, They have Moses and the 
prophets, let them hear them." From these they might 
learn — not that it is wicked to be rich and blessed to be 
a beggar, but — that a godless, selfish, sensual worldliness 
meets a terrible retribution from a just God. From this 
answer of Abraham it would seem that these five brethren 
were all Jewish believers ; they had these writings in 
their hands, but they did not permit them to influence 
their lives. 

The language of Christ here is a remarkable testimony 
from him that the canon of the Old Testament is what 
it was believed by the Jews to be — the word of God 
speaking by Moses and the prophets — and that it had 
been preserved by the Jewish Church to our Lord's age 
(whence it has come down to our own) in purity and 
integrity, and that it is genuine, authentic and divine. 
It is often asserted that the doctrine of future punish- 
ment is not taught in the Old Testament. DoubtlesSj 
like the correlative doctrine of heavenly reward, it was 



THE RICH MAN AND LAZARUS. 461 

not announced in terms as distinctly as in the New. But 
the doctrine of retribution, both for the righteous and the 
wicked, is abundantly taught there, so that, as the reply 
of Abraham indicates, men were by it sufficiently warned 
of the coming wrath. 

Whatever aspect of sympathy the rich man's prayer 
may have worn, it is plain that it breathed the spirit of 
audacity. It was a reflection on the wisdom of God, 
inasmuch as he had made a revelation unaccompanied 
with evidence adequate to produce conviction of its 
divine origin, or so obscure as not to be intelligible for 
practical purposes. And it was a reflection on his jus- 
tice, because it had doomed him to suffering for not yield- 
ing to the influence of a system of truth thus imperfectly 
attended with marks and means of credibility. It was, 
indeed, an effort on his part for tacit exculpation of him- 
self by taxing God with having formerly used only im- 
perfect and improper means for his conversion. Thus 
is it evident that the sinner carries with him to his cheer- 
less abode the same disparaging thoughts he had of the 
Bible when on earth, and the same conceit of wisdom 
superior to the divine which supposes itself competent to 
dictate a more effectual method of salvation than God 
was pleased to appoint. Thus regarded, therefore, we 
are prepared for the disposition which was made of this 
prayer. 

"They will repent," says the rich man, but Abraham 
replies, "Tiny will not even be persuaded." "They 
will repent," -ays Dives, "it" one went unto them from 
the dead," bul Abraham, with a prophetic glance at tin' 

world's unbelief in a far greater matter, further replies, 
" No, not [f one rose from the dead;" as il* he had said, 
" A far greater act than you demand would be ineffectual 



4G2 THE PARABLES OF JESUS. 

for producing a far slighter effect. You suppose that 
wicked men would repent on the return of a spirit; I 
tell you they would not even be persuaded by the rising 
of one from the dead." The state of heart in which the 
Bible is rejected is such that it would not be overcome or 
changed by any external evidence. This was the point 
which Jesus had mainly in view in this part of the par- 
able. He wished to explain the nature of faith, to show 
that it is a moral act — an act of the will and affections 
no less than of the understanding, something, therefore, 
which cannot be enforced by signs and miracles; for 
where there is a determined alienation of the will and 
affections from the truth, no impressions which these 
miracles will make, even if they be allowed to be gen- 
uine, will be more than transitory. 

" He who gives no credit to the Scripture gives none 
to miracles, since it is filled with those of Christ and his 
apostles. Passion has no other design but to gain time, 
and to get rid of those proofs which press too hard upon 
and incommode it, under pretence of desiring better; and 
when such are produced, they serve only to provoke and 
harden it the more. Christ did raise another Lazarus, 
and the Jews would fain have sent him back to the 
grave, and from that very time resolved upon the death 
of Christ himself. This Saviour rose from the dead, 
and it was this very resurrection which hardened that 
perfidious people and served to fill up the measure of 
their sins. In vain does the Sun of truth shine upon 
him who is blinded by passion. Let this but cease, and 
everything will appear plain. Faith is satisfied with 
such proofs as God vouchsafes to afford it ; incredulity 
never has enough." 

A recent writer says : " Let no one flatter himself that 



THE RICH MAN AND LAZARUS. 463 

he will stand excused at God's bar for his rejection of 
Christ, on the ground that the evidences of Christianity 
are insufficient or because the facts of the eternal world 
are not clearly enough revealed. There are many to-day 
who give as a reason for their delay to receive Christ that 
they are not yet satisfied on certain points of Christian doc- 
trine. They raise questions concerning this or that phase 
of revelation. They are apt to stumble thus over matters 
M'hich are not so fully revealed, and definite knowledge 
of which is not essential to salvation. Yet in the vague- 
ness of the Bible teaching on these points they find plea 
enough to excuse them, in their own minds, from hum- 
bly accepting Christianity and enrolling themselves as 
Christians. They cannot do this until these obscure 
matters are made more plain. The teaching of this 
parable is that no such plea will avail at the bar of 
God. The revelation which has been made is sufficient, 
and leaves men without excuse. There is no vagueness 
or indefiniteness in the teachings that tell men how to be 
saved and how to live so as to glorify God. The plea 
for fuller revelation is only a pillow for a conscience that 
is uneasy over its rejection of Christ. It is not clearer 
teaching that is needed, but a humbling of heart to 
accept Christ and to bow to his will. In this dispensa- 
tion of the Spirit it is far more true than even when 
this parable was uttered, that if men will not believe 
Moses and the prophets, and Christ and his apostles, 
neither would they be persuaded though one rose from 
tlic dead." 

"Let us lav this solemn [(arable to heart." There is 
none more solemn; for here our Lord, as if were, lifts 
the veil that hides from our view the world t<» conic. 
Tin' rich man and Lazarus had their time on earth, and 



464 



THE PARABLES OF JESUS. 



each had his appointed lot mid means and opportunities j 

and then they died, and were separated for ever. We 
are now passing through life, and each of us lias his 
own peculiar lot, and before us lies the eternal world 
and the great separation. Where are our hearts? what 
is our life? Whether we be rich or poor, strong or 
sickly, is a question of comparatively little moment. 
The great question is, What is the state of our souls in 
the sight of God ? 

They of old time had "Moses and the prophets;" 
Ave have far more, for we have Jesus and the gospel. 
" How shall we escape, if we neglect so great salvation ?" 
There is a happy place to which all true believers go 
when they die, and there is an endless separation be- 
tween them and all others. The only safety is to flee 
in faith to the Lord Jesus Christ, and then, in watch- 
fulness and prayer and in the daily endeavor to do 
the wall of God, to wait for his appearing. " Blessed 
is that servant whom his Lord when he conieth shall 
find so doing." 



♦ THE * IMPORTUNATE * WIDOW.* 



" Man's plea to man is that he never more 
Will beg, and that he never begged before; 
Man's plea to God is, that he did obtain 
A former suit, and therefore sues again. 
How good a God we serve, that, when -we sue, 
Makes his old gifts the examples of his new!" 

465 



/ And he spake a parable unto them to this end, that men ought 

2 always to pray, and not to faint; Saying, There was in a city a 

3 judge, which feared not God, neither regarded man. And there was 
a widow in that city ; and she came unto him, saying, Avenge me of 

4 mine adversary. And he would not for a while : but afterward he 

5 said within himself Though I fear not God, nor regard man, Yet, 
because this widow troubleth me, I will avenge her, lest by her contin- 

6 ual coming she weary me. And the Lord said. Hear what the un- 

7 just judge saith. And shall not God avenge his own elect, which 
S cry day and night unto him, though he bear long with them ? I tell 

you that he will avenge them speedily. Nevertheless, when the Son of 
man comet h, shall he find faith on the earth ? 

Luke xviii. i-8. 
466 



THE IMPORTUNATE WIDOW. 



A LTHOUGH it is possible that between this and 
-*— *- the immediately preceding discourse of the Saviour 
some intervening discourses were delivered, the connec- 
tion of the parable of the Unjust Judge with the fore- 
going discourse about the second coming of Christ 
strikes the eye at once. The Saviour had long before 
announced that heavy times were coming, in which 
conflicts and oppression would by no means be wanting 
to his people; what could he now do better than to 
admonish them to persevering prayer, that at last the 
long-sighed-for vindication might become their happy 
lot? But a deeper and more enlarged significancy of 
what is taught is to be sought in its application to all 
believers in a state of discouragement and despondency 
in regard to the evils which beset them and the apparent 
fruitlessness of their prayers. 

The parable in one particular bears a close resemblance 
to that of the Unjust Steward. In that, an illustration 
of the wisdom, energy and forethought with which 
men should fulfill the duties of their stewardship to 
God is drawn from the example of an unjust but 
shrewd and energetic steward. In this, the power of 
importunate prayer is illustrated by the effect which 
the importunity of a widow had upon an anjusi judge, 

467 



' 



468 THE PARABLES OF JESUS. 

In neither case is any palliation offered for injustice. 
The reference in the one case -was simply to the prompt 
action of the steward, and in the other to the power of 
importunity over the unjust judge. 

We are not to understand by the expression, " men 
ought always to pray," that a man should be incessantly 
performing the ad of prayer. The life of Christ was 
a prayer, yet there were seasons in which he especially 
applied himself to prayer with his heavenly Father. 
Men ought to pray constantly at stated times, to be 
habitually in that spirit of humble dependence and 
expectation which gives life to prayer, to be frequently 
offering ejaculatory petitions, and to be always ready 
for prayer, secret, social or public, when opportunity is 
afforded. Nor should they flag or become remiss in this 
spirit and exercise. "In this precept, to pray always," 
says Trench, " there is nothing of exaggeration, nothing 
commanded which may not be fulfilled, when we un- 
derstand prayer as the continual desire of the soul after 
God, having indeed its times of intensity, seasons of an 
intenser concentration of the spiritual life, but not being 
confined to those times, since the whole life of the faith- 
ful should be, in Origen's beautiful words, 'one great 
connected prayer,' or, as St. Basil expresses it, ' prayer 
should be the salt which is to salt everything besides.' " 
" That soul," says Donne, " that is accustomed to direct 
herself to God upon every occasion, that, as a flower at 
sunrising, conceives a sense of God in every beam of 
his, and spreads and dilates itself toward him, in a 
thankfulness, in every small blessing that he sheds upon 
her, .... that soul who, whatsoever string be stricken 
in her, bass or treble, her high or her low estate, is ever 
turned toward God, — that soul prays sometimes when it 



THE IMPORTUNATE WIDOW. 46!) 

does not know that it prays But He who knew 

how easily we are put off from prayer, and under what 
continual temptations we are to grow slack in it, especial- 
ly if we find not at once the answer we expect, warns us 
against this very thing, bidding us to pray always, and 
not to faint, not to grow weary, since in due season we 
shall reap if we faint not." 

The character of the judge is such that one could 
look for no good from him. He had no regard to the 
divine laws, nor did he fear the displeasure of Jehovah. 
So abandoned was he as to have no self-respect or care 
for the esteem of those around him. Popular favor 
had no attractions for him, popular indignation no 
influence with him. He was lost to all sense of right 
and wrong — one who debased his office and made self 
and iniquity the occupants of the judicial seat. 

The applicant to this judge was a widow — one of a 
helpless and friendless class in Eastern countries and 
Bible times. The judge had doubtless seen her very 
frequently ; she was no stranger to him. He could 
more easily put aside her claims than those of one who 
had a stranger's acknowledged right to receive a redress 
of wrongs. Having no friends to assist her, she could 
neither defend herself from injuries nor obtain satisfac- 
tion for them when committed; hence in an instance 
where she was greatly oppressed she found herself 
obliged to petition the judge for redress. She came to 
him to be "avenged of her adversary." The old Eng- 
lish writers use the words avenge and revenge f<> signify 
not evil intent and malice, as the terms now import, but 
simply the assigning to a plaintiff what is just, and 
thereby delivering him from the evil acts or purposes 
of his adversary. This poor widow, then, came to the 

40 



470 THE PARA ULES OF JESUS. 

unjust judge for simple justice; and lie, by the law of 
God and man, was bound to give it to her. Either 
through indifference or indolence, for a long time he 
refused to give her audience. But, put off once, she 
came again; rebuffed to-day, she returned to-morrow; 
and with an energy born amidst sorrow and nursed by 
oppression she persisted in her appeal until the judge 
listened to her cry. 

Now, mark the encouragement which is here given 
to the believer to pray ! Was this judge thoroughly, 
radically unjust? Jehovah "is just and true in all his 
ways." His every act is in strict conformity with his 
own most holy law, and through the whole, course of 
his government the Judge of all the earth doeth right. 
Did this woman come to the judge in her own name? 
The elect of God come all in the name of the great 
Mediator and Intercessor. They come in the name of 
Him who is most nearly related to the Judge and to 
them. " We have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus 
Christ the righteous." It is said indefinitely "with 
the Father" — not his or our Father, but the common 
Father of him and us, as we are to understand it. And 
since with him we have such an Advocate, may we not 
expect to prevail ? 

Did the unjust judge take no pains to discover 
whether the widow's cause was right or not ? Was it 
a matter of perfect indifference to him whether she were 
the injured party or not — whether she really needed to 
be defended from another or was herself only anxious 
to inflict an injury? Was his sole reason for yielding 
assent to the woman's petition the fear of being con- 
stantly troubled by her importunity — "lest by her con- 
tinual coming she weary me"? When God hears the 



THE IMPORTUNATE WIDOW. 471 

prayer of his elect, and answers it, he proceeds on the 
strictest principles of law and justice. Not a single 
petition is granted to his people which is not stamped 
with the image and superscription of that King "the 
girdle of whose loins is righteousness." 

Did the unjust judge grant the widow's claim with 
no regard to the poor suppliant herself? Was she an 
object of perfect indifference to him? Did he care 
nothing for her happiness and prosperity on the one 
hand, or her misery and wretchedness on the other? 
"Well may our Lord mark this contrast so emphatically 
as he does : "Hear what the unjust judge saith, And shcdl 
not God avenge his own elect ?" How these words, 
"his own elect," touch in the tenderest manner the 
great and eternal contrast between this unjust judge 
and God ! The latter yields to the prayer of the sup- 
pliants — first, because it is right to do so, and then he 
does it with his whole heart ; it is his joy and delight 
to do so. The suppliants are his own beloved people, 
very precious in his sight — so precious, indeed, that it 
is said of them, "He that toucheth you, toucheth the 
apple of his eye." So his gift comes to them distin- 
guished by the tokens of that "holiness which be- 
cometh God's house for ever," as well as of "a love 
which passeth knowledge." 

The words, "Though he bear long with them" mean, 
Though he delays to help them. To the inquiry, Why 
docs God delay at all to answer the prayers of his peo- 
ple? it may be replied that this is done with wisdom 
and love combined. It would be, so to speak, easier 
for a father who is at once rich and benevoleni to com- 
ply immediately and fully with all his child demands; 
but it requires a deeper, stronger love to leave the child 



172 THE PARABLES OF JESUS. 

knocking for a time in vain, that the bounty given at 
the proper time may in the end be a greater boon. 

" I once knew two men who lived near each other 
in similar worldly circumstances," says Dr. Arnot, "but 
adopted opposite methods in the treatment of their chil- 
dren. The boys of this family obtained money from 
their father when they asked it, and spent it according 
to their own pleasure, without his knowledge or control : 
the boys of that family often asked, but seldom received, 
a similar supply. The father who frequently thwarted 
his children's desires loved his children more deeply 
and, as the result showed, more wisely, than the father 
who could not summon courage sufficient to say ' No.' 
The wise parent bore with his own when they pleaded 
for some dangerous indulgence, and the bearing wound- 
ed his tender heart, but by reason of his greater love 
he bore the pain of hearing their cry without granting 
their request. The other parent was too indolent and 
self-pleasing to endure such a strain, and he lived to 
taste bitter fruit from the evil seed which his own hand 
had sown." 

For the same reason and in the same manner our 
Father in heaven bears with his own when they cry 
night and day to him for something on which their 
hearts are set. Because he loves us he endures to hear 
our cry and see our tears. We do not certainly know 
what thorn it was that penetrated Paul's flesh, but we 
know that it pained him much, that he eagerly desired 
to be quit of it, and that he besought the Lord thrice 
to take it away. From the fact that the child pleaded 
three times for the same boon we learn that the Father 
bore with him a while — bore, so to speak, the pain of 
refusing, because he knew that the refusal Mas needful 



THE IMPORTUNATE WIDOW. 473 

for him. The thorn was left in the flesh until its dis- 
cipline was done, and then it was plucked out by a 
strong and gentle hand. "My grace is sufficient for 
thee." There are no thorns in Paul's flesh now. 

" The case of the Syro-Phoenician woman runs paral- 
lel with this as well as with the Friend at Midnight. 
Mark how the Lord bore with the woman ! He de- 
lighted in her faith ; it was his happiness to give, 
and yet he refused ; in denying her he denied himself. 
But by withholding a while he kindled her love into a 
brighter, stronger flame. By refusing what she asked 
he reduplicated her asking ; this is profitable to her. 
By the long delay on his part, and the consequent eager 
repetition of the request on her part, a rich boon was 
prepared and bestowed. Her appetite was greatly 
quickened and her satisfying was more full. Who 
shall be filled most abundantly from the treasures of 
divine mercy at last? Those who hungered and thirst- 
ed most for these treasures in the house of their pil- 
grimage." 

" I tell you that he will avenge them speedily." This 
is the last ground of confidence and continued prayer — 
the true and faithful promise of divine help. He is to 
interpose speedily — that is, suddenly, unexpectedly, be- 
fore they, with their weak faith, look for it. " He 
will speedily deliver them," which is opposed to the 
bearing long ; nor are we called to depart from this 
very plain interpretation by the fact that God some- 
times suffers his people to be for a time oppressed by 
the wicked ; for that period, though it may seem long 
to the sufferers, is yet of very short continuance, only 
momentary; and hence Paul speaks of the season of 
tribulation as "but for a moment." It will tend much 



474 THE PARABLES OF JESUS. 

to encourage us to diligence in prayer if we can rest in 
confidence, not only that we shall be delivered, but that 
we shall quickly be delivered, although it may still be 
delayed. 

" Nevertheless, when the Son of man cometh, shall he 
find faith on the earth ?" What faith does our Lord 
mean? If he means saving faith in himself, then the 
question points not only to the speedy falling away of 
many who heard him then, but also to the great apos- 
tasy which will precede his coming (2 Thess. ii. 3). 
But it is more probable that he refers to the kind of 
faith set forth in the parable — faith which endures in 
importunate prayer. The question, then, implies that 
the trials of the faith and patience of the Church during 
the Lord's delay will be so great as to make it doubtful 
whether such importunity for the Lord's return will be 
the rule in the day of his appearing. 

This view does not encourage the over-gloomy view 
that the day of Christ's triumph will be when his peo- 
ple have become very few in number. On the other 
hand, it agrees with the representations repeatedly made, 
that the coming will be an unexpected one even to real 
believers. The special form of faith which will be lack- 
ing is faith in the return of the Lord, as evidenced by 
importunate prayer for the hastening of that event. 

Let not the earnestness which is ascribed to the prayer 
of God's people in the parable be overlooked. It is a 
" cry unto him." A few formal phrases, a few languid 
petitions, a few ascriptions of praise and a few acknowl- 
edgments of mercies are not the kind of prayers which 
are pleasing to God. He requires heart-prayers, the 
M 7 cllings-up of desires from souls that feel their sin and 
their need of a Saviour. It is not " eloquent prayers," 



THE IMPORTUNATE WIDOW. 475 

elaborately carved and polished by the tools of rhetoric 
for ears refined, that are pleasing to God. It is not a 
harangue addressed to men under the form of prayer 
to God that he approves, neither is it " much speaking " 
or "vain repetitions " that engage his attention. Do 
you wish to pray aright ? Go to God as a sinful child ; 
go to him as your Father, reconciled by the death of 
his Son ; go in faith and hope, in love and adoration. 
Tell him your fears, your trials, your doubts, your sins. 
Unburden your soul at the gate of his ear. Go with a 
broken and a contrite heart, looking only for acceptance 
in and through the merits and sacrifice of Jesus Christ, 
and you shall assuredly be heard. The word of his 
promise is, " Whatsoever ye shall ask in my name, be- 
lieving, ye shall receive," and "Him that cometh unto 
me I will in no wise cast out." 

Let us not, either, overlook the importunity in prayer 
which the parable calls for. " So soon as the unjust 
judge took his seat at the gate of the city, where in the 
East courts are held and causes heard, his eye fell on 
the widow who wished to be avenged of her adversary. 
There she was, and always was — sorrow in her dress, 
but determination in her eye ; her form bent with grief, 
but her spirit unbroken ; resolved to give that judge no 
rest till he had granted her request. Now she is on her 
feet passionately demanding justice, and now, stretched 
on the ground at his feet, she piteously implores it. 
Nor can he shake her off. Denied her suit in court, 
she follows him to his house to interrupt his leisure 
and embitter his pleasures. She bursts into his pres- 
ence, and is dragged away by the servants and thrust 
out, but only to return. As by constant dashing tin: 
waves in time cut into the cliff) which, yielding to the 



47G 



THE PARABLES OF JESUS. 



incessant action of a weaker element, some day bows 
its proud head, and, precipitating itself forward, falls 
into the sea, so the persistence of the widow overcomes 
the resistance of the judge. So must we be importunate 
at the throne of grace. To pray as one of the elect it is 
necessary that our prayer be not only like a cry by its 
strength, fervency and elevation toward God, but also 
be persevering and continual." 

" We are," says Hone, " to take heed that we ' faint 
not,' and we must know that fainting may be either 
when faith languisheth or desire. It is faint praying 
when we pray as if we cared not whether we prayed or 
not. The word in the parable rendered 'faint' is the 
same with that which elsewhere is rendered * weary :' 
' Let us not be weary in well-doing, for in due season we 
shall reap if we faint not ;' that is, if we be not sluggish 
in the course of well-doing. Take heed, therefore, of 
praying the sluggard's prayer or at the sluggard's rate. 
' The desire of the slothful kills him, because his hands 
refuse to labor.' His own desires carry no life in them ; 
they are even death to his very heart — cold things that 
strike death into the soul, and put no life into it." 

And then, too, when faith languisheth it is faint pray- 
ing. What ! come to God as if we did not expect to 
get anything from God ? Go heartlessly into the divine 
presence ? Give way to a cold, dull spirit in the very 
performance of the duty, and never look after the suc- 
cess of it when it is over? Let not such think they 
shall receive anything at the hands of God. 



THE*PHARISEE*AND*THE*PUBLMN. 



! Humble we must be if to heaven we go; 
High is the roof there, but the gate is low. 
"Whene'er thou speakest, look with a lowly eye- 
Graee is increased by humility." 

477 



o And he spake this parable unto certain which trusted in themselves 

jo that they were righteous, and despised others : Two men went up 

into the temple to pray ; the one a Pharisee, and the other a pttb- 

ii lican. The Pharisee stood and prayed thus with himself, God, I 

thank thee, that I am not as other men are, extortioners, unjust, 

12 adulterers, or even as this publican. I fast twice in the -week, I give 

i j tithes of alJ that /possess. And the publican, standing afar off, 

would not lift up so much as his eyes unto heaven, but smote upon 

14 his breast, saying, God be merciful to me a sinner. I tell you, this 

man went down to his house justified rather than the other: for 

every one that exaltelh himself shall be abased ; and he that hum- 

bleth himself shall be exalted. 

Luke xviii. 9-14. 
478 



THE 

PHARISEE AND THE PUBLICAN. 



fT^HIS parable, like the last, treats of prayer, but pre- 
-*- sents a different aspect of the subject. That recom- 
mends generally the duty of prayer; this gives us to 
understand the property of a right prayer. That teaches 
that prayer must be earnest and persevering ; this, that 
it must also be humble. That dissuades from indolence ; 
this, from confidence in ourselves. 

This parable was addressed to the multitude, among 
whom were doubtless persons belonging to both the 
classes here represented. Stier contends that the words 
certain which trusted in themselves are not to be referred 
to the Pharisees as an exclusive class, but to some even 
of our Lord's disciples who were in the company, and 
who, hearing what efficacy was inherent in importunate 
prayer, were puffed up with the conceit of their good 
works as the basis on which they could offer to great 
advantage this sort of prayer. To this Dr. John J. 
Owen adds that if the Pharisees had been particularly 
addressed our Lord would hardly have rebuked them by 
an example drawn from one of their own class; and in- 
deed such a reference would have taken away the very 
feature which constitutes the parable. It would have 
been a plain and open charge against the self-righteous 
spirit of that sect, instead of a parabolic representation 

of the fact. 

479 



180 THE PARABLES OF JESUS. 

But if the Pharisees were not particularly addressed, 
the parable is aimed directly against the pharisaic spirit, 
which has always been prevalent in the world, and even 
in the Church of Christ. The lesson of the parable is 
one of general application, and is at war with every 
assumption of superior holiness from a comparison of 
ourselves with our fellow-men. 

It was usual with pious people to go vp into the temple 
to pray. This was fitting, for there God was publicly 
worshiped, and there he manifested himself to his faith- 
ful ones. Solomon, at the dedication of the former tem- 
ple, had asked that whatever prayer should be offered in 
a right manner in that house, or toward it, should be 
accepted. In this the two men did not differ. Nor did 
they differ in that both were sinners. Their sins as to 
outward form were diverse, but in essential character the 
sinfulness was the same in both. Both adopted the same 
attitude in prayer, both alike looked into their own hearts 
and lives, and both permitted the judgment thus formed 
to determine the form and matter of their prayer. 

Let us note the subject-matter of the Pharisee's prayer. 
Why ! he is not, as a suppliant, asking at the hands of 
God what he needs ! He stands as one in need of noth- 
ing — as one rich in every spiritual gift and grace. In 
the full tide of self-righteous feeling he pours out a 
series of thanksgivings for what he is and what he does. 
His is not a humble prayer for what he requires; it is 
an arrogant, self-satisfied enumeration of what he vainly 
thinks that he possesses. 

What is so broadly expressed in this part of the par- 
able is just what exists in reality in unconverted minds. 
They pray, it may be; they may pray often. Their 
place of devotion may be a distinguished one, but if the 



THE PHARISEE AND THE PUBLICAN. 481 

inward bearing of the heart could he noticed it would be 
found to be breathing such a self-righteous spirit as that 
before us — contentment with its present spiritual condi- 
tion, satisfaction with what it fancies that it has rather 
than earnestly seeking what it has not. 

Then, see further how this spirit is expressed in the 
parable. The Pharisee not only enumerates a long list 
of excellent graces which he possesses ; he also with great 
complacency regards himself as very superior to others. 
He thanks God that he is not " as other men are." He 
forms two classes, into the one of which he throws the 
whole human race, he himself appearing to constitute 
the other and better one. He twice errs — first, in that 
he reckons it matter of great praise not to be among the 
most depraved ; then in judging so harshly of other men, 
the greater part of whom were not known to him. 
Heartlessly he both judges and condemns. He recounts 
before God his excellences, that God might know how 
to recompense him, as his like was not to be found in the 
world. 

On this point of the parable Dr. Guthrie observes : 
"To entertain a bad opinion of others without sufficient 
evidence proves more than the lack of charity which 
hopeth all things and believeth all things. Who does 
not believe others virtuous would be found, were th^ 
secrets of his heart and life known, to be himself 
vicious. We may lay it down as an axiom thai those 
who are ready to suspect others of being actuate! by a 
regard to self-interest are themselves selfish. Thieves 
do not believe in the existence of honesty, aor rakes in 
virtue, nor mercenary politicians in patriotism. The 
reason why worldlings regard religious people as hypo- 
crites is their <>\vn want of religion ; knowing thai were 
•II 



482 THE PARABLES OF JESUS. 

they to profess a warm regard for Christ, the glory of 
God and the salvation of souls, they would be hypo- 
crites, they conclude others to be so. Hence also you 
find many novelists representing every man into whose 
mouth they put the language of piety as either a rogue 
or a fool, most commonly a rogue — a very unsound but 
not unnatural conclusion on their part, for prejudices 
resemble the fogs that turn the bright sun into a dull 
copper ball, and a bad heart is like the jaundice, that 
sees its own dingy yellow in the purest lily. I con- 
clude, therefore, however fair the whited sepulchre 
looked, that in his heart at least this Pharisee was 
what he took other men to be — an extortioner, unjust 
and an adulterer. He had no right to put on such airs, 
or, as his eyes fell on him, to make a footstool of the 
publican to stand higher before God, saying by way of 
climax, 'nor as this publican.'" 

Thus was the character of the Pharisee sadly de- 
fective. It was not wrong in him to begin his prayer 
as he did ; it is right to thank God. Neither would 
there have been anything wrong in what he said about 
not being as other men if it had sprung from a proper 
feeling — if he had been conscious of his unworthiness 
and amazed at God's long-suffering. Then, too, to fast 
is right and to give tithes is right, but this Pharisee 
spoiled all he had done by his self-righteous pre- 
tensions. His thoughts of others excited in his heart 
the very opposite of that real gratitude which was ex- 
pressed by one who, seeing a felon led to the gallows, 
exclaimed, speaking for himself, " But for the grace of 
God there goes John Bradford !" His prayer exhibits 
no sense of sin and need, contains no confession and no 
petition for mercy and grace. It is, as already stated, 



TEE PEARISEE AND TEE PUBLICAN. 483 

a mere boasting recital of fancied merits, accompanied 
by an uncharitable reflection on a brother-sinner. 

"He trusted in himself that he was righteous." 
True, everything around him declared the reverse. 
There before him, in the temple, were the priests sup- 
plicating the pardon of the nation's transgressions; 
there stood the altar of burnt-offering directly within 
his sight; either the morning or the evening sacrifice 
had probably at this time just been slain: look where 
lie would, the whole temple proclaimed itself a temple 
built for sinners; it proclaimed to this Pharisee the 
divine holiness and man's great guilt; yet he feels as 
he stands in it no guilt ; he prays in this temple as a 
righteous man. 

" Exemption from gross faults, and the external per- 
formance of good works," says Quesnel, "are a source 
of pride and complacency in those who have not laid a 
foundation of humility. Bodily mortification and lib- 
erality in alms arc apt to puff men up, and do sometimes 
cause more hurt and prejudice to a soul than it would 
receive either from luxury or avarice. A fault which 
truly humbles is more useful and profitable than a 
virtue which puffs up with pride, because a false virtue 
is a veil which hides our vices from us. It is a very 
miserable condition in which we are here below, where 
we have :is much to do to secure ourselves from the 
sight which the devil gives us of our own goodness as 
from the evil which he earnestly endeavors to put into 
our hearts." 

"And the publican, standing afar oil', would not lilt 
up so much as his eves unto heaven, hut smote upon his 
breast, saying, God be merciful to me a sinner." The 
difference between the men does not lie in that this was 



484 THE PARABLES OF JESUS. 

a good man, while the other was had. This is a sinner 
too, but he has come to know it, and therein lies the 
distinction between him and the Pharisee. Mark the 
peculiarities of his case!' 

"He stood afar off," doubtless because he felt himself 
utterly unworthy to be near the seemingly righteous 
Pharisee or near any one who appeared really to love 
God. Here was one proof of his deep humility, and 
now see another. There is a Being in heaven far holier 
than the holiest of mortals, and this the man knew. 
Mark the abasement of his soul before him ! He comes 
into his presence in his temple, but when there he feels 
as though he could hardly bear his presence — " he would 
not lift up so much as his eyes unto heaven." He could 
not. He was like an offending child that comes humbled 
and heartbroken to a forgiving father, and covers his 
face in shame and confusion as he comes, not daring 
to meet his father's glance. Then, how earnestly he 
prayed! He "smote upon his breast." No matter 
what led him to do so. It was doubtless a mixture of 
feelings. Indignation against himself, a sense of his 
own pollution and misery, a thrilling apprehension of 
coming wrath, — these things took possession of his 
mind ; they agitated him, and, like a man driven to 
extremities, he could not restrain his agitation; he smote 
himself as he cried for mercy. He became exceedingly 
earnest in his prayer for it. He prayed for nothing 
else, he thought of nothing else. Mercy is everything 
with him. "God be merciful to me a sinner." 

" This expression of conscious unworthiness," says 
one, " is simply the irrepressible confession of sincerity, 
pressed out of the soul by a longing for forgiveness — 
short because so terribly sincere. The straitened spirit 



THE PHARISEE AND THE PUBLICAN. , 485 

in its anguish lias no room for particulars. The very 
sound of the words, the downcast look, the withdrawn 
jiosition, the agonized gesture, as well as the character 
Christ puts upon these things, betray the reality of the 
man's repentance. The thing they expose to us is 
human sin — its self-conviction, its wretchedness, its 
way of relief." 

Mark now the issue ! " I tell you, this man went 
down to his house justified rather than the other." He 
was accepted and approved in the sight of God. Of 
course it is not meant that the prayer of the publican 
justified him. That the man who pleaded merely for 
mercy should be justified merely by his prayer is absurd. 
He was justified, forgiven, his sin pardoned, his guilt 
remitted, by that mercy which he had invoked, but it 
was mercy in answer to prayer. Neither are we to 
suppose that the Pharisee was a little justified, and the 
publican very much, and that the difference between 
them was only one of degree. There are uo degrees 
in justification. The Pharisee was not justified at all 
except by and before himself. The idea designed to be 
conveyed by the words just quoted is, that there was 
such essential difference in the religious act of these 
two men that one only could be acceptable with God, 
and that such was the deep self-abasement of the publi- 
can that his was the prayer which was accepted rather 
(linn, the one so offensive to God as that of the Pharisee. 

We might have looked for some trial or process to be 
gone through before the publican should be fully par- 
doned, lie himself perhaps, when In' asked for mercy, 
was looking forward to some distant day, and praying 
that he might find mercy then — the mercy thai Paul 
prayed for at Rome for his friend Onesiphorus, mercy 
ii - ; 



486 THE PARABLES OF JESUS. 

"in that day." "But there is mercy for him now" 
says Jehovah ; " I interpose no delay." An hour ago 
he was indeed a sinner; the iniquities of a whole life 
were on him and hell was' beneath him, but now he is 
cleansed, and cleansed for ever, from all sin. One look 
at the slain sacrifice, one cry for mercy, has made that 
miserable sinner a child of God and an heir of heaven. 
Not merely was he justified in the secret counsels of 
God, but he returned to his home with a sweet sense of 
a received forgiveness shed abroad in his heart. As a 
justified man he sat in the circle of his family, retired 
to his rest at night, rose in the morning to his labor, at 
peace with God. " On the morrow he looked on the 
sunlight without being in terror of the Mighty One 
whose word had made it shine ; he walked abroad in 
the fields in conscious, loving companionship with Him 
who spread them out and covered them with green ; he 
looked from the mountain-side on the great sea when ' it 
wrought and was tempestuous,' the confiding child of 
Him who holds its waters in the hollow of his hand ; 
and when again he laid his head upon the pillow for rest 
to his wearied body, he laid his soul on the love of his 
Saviour as an infant leans on a mother's breast. When 
the Hand that led him through the wilderness leads 
him at length clown the dark sides of the swelling 
Jordan, he looks up with languid eye but bright, burn- 
ing spirit, and whispers to his guide, 'I will not fear, 
for thou art with me.' AY hen the judgment is set and 
the books are opened, he stands before the Judge in 
white clothing, accepted in the Beloved; the voice of 
the Eternal, tenderly human, yet clothed with divine 
authority, utters the welcome ' ( !ome, thou blessed of my 
Father, inherit the kingdom.'" 



THE PHARISEE AND THE PUBLICAN. 487 

"For every one that exalteth himself shall be abased: 
and he that humbleth himself shall be exalted." In this 
sentiment, often repeated, and on very different occasions 
announced by our Lord, there is contained a general 
fundamental principle of the divine kingdom, according 
to which God regulates his procedure. Here, in partic- 
ular, it forms the ground why the publican, but not the 
Pharisee, was justified. The haughtiness of the latter 
excluded him from the enjoyment of the divine favor ; 
the humility of the former rendered him a fit recipient 
of grace. "What is meant by exalting one's self the 
Pharisee's prayer shows to be an overvaluing of real 
or only fancied excellences. He who exalts himself 
shall receive a treatment from God quite opposite to the 
judgment of men, whereby he shall be humbled. The 
prayer, as well as the entire behavior, of the publican, 
springing from the deepest feelings of the heart, is the 
self-humiliation which pleases the Lord. Whosoever so 
humbles himself shall elicit both from men and from 
God a judgment and a dealing which are accordant with 
his graces. 

The publican's success is a great encouragement to 
every sinner, convinced of his sins, who is seeking for 
mercy. Truly cheering is it, as we look at the parable, 
to see how well the Lord Jesus understands all the 
workings of the human heart. He could never have 
felt as this sinful publican felt; he had never known sin, 
and could not know what shame and humiliation in his 
Father's presence were; yet here lie describes them as 
naturally as though he had experienced (hem. All may 
take comfort from this who are bowed down by these 
feelings. Though they cannol look up to God, though 
they scarcely dare even to pray to him, so hateful and 



488 THE r ARABLES OF JESUS. 

loathsome do they deem themselves in his sight, yet 
God knows well the workings of their souls. He looks 
on them, though they dare not look on him, and never 
again will he take from them that look of kindness. 
"To this man," he says, "will I look," and look with 
all the care and pity and tenderness of my soul, ''even 
to him that is poor, and of a contrite spirit, and that 
trembleth at my word." 



*THE* POUNDS.* 



j i And as they heard these things, he added and spake a parable, be- 
eanse he was nigh to Jerusalem, and because they thought that the 

12 kingdom of God should immediately appear. He said tha 

certain nobleman went into a far country to receive for himself a 

ij kingdom, and to return. And he called his ten servants, and deliv- 

14 ered them ten pounds, and said unto them, Occupy till I come. But 
his citizens hated him, and sent a message after him, saying. We will 

ij not have this man to reign over us. And it came to pass, that when 
he was returned, having received the kingdom, then he commanded 
these servants to be called unto him, to whom he had given the money, 
that he might know how much every man had gained by trading. 

16 Then came the first, saying, Lord, thy pound hath gained ten pounds. 

ly And he said unto him, Well, thou good servant: because thou hast 

18 been faith fill in a very little, have thou authority over ten cities. And 
the second came, saying, Lord, thy pound hath gained five pounds. 

ig, 20 And he said likewise to him, Be thou also over five cities. And 
another came, saying, L.ord, behold, here is thy pound, which 7 have 

21 kept laid up in a napkin: For L feared thee, because thou art an 
. austere man : thou takesl up that thou layedst not down, and reapest 

22 that thou didst not sow. And he saith unto him, Out of thine own 
mouth will I judge thee, thou wicked servant. Thou knewest that I 
was an austere man, taking up that L laid not down, and reaping 

2J that I did not sow : Wherefore then gavest not thou my money into 
the bank, that at my coming I might have required mine o~wn with 

24 usury ? And he said unto them that stood by, Take from him the 

25 pound, and give it to him that hath ten pounds. {And they said unto 

26 him, Lord, he hath ten pounds.) For L say unto you, That unto 
every one which hath shall be given ; and from him that hath not 

27 even that he hath shall be taken away from him. But those mine 
enemies, which would not that I should reign over them, bring hither, 
and sin v them before me, 

Luke xix. 11-27. 

490 



THE POUNDS. 



r I ^HIS parable was related to correct a mistake into 
-*- which many of the Lord's disciples had fallen. 
They thought that the kingdom of God should imme- 
diately appear. They were not wrong in supposing that 
this kingdom would one day be established upon the 
earth, for it will be set up Avith power and great glory, 
but they were wrong in supposing that the time was 
already come. There will be great voices in heaven, 
saying, "The kingdoms of this world arc become the 
kingdoms of our Lord and of his Christ, and he shall 
reign for ever and ever." But before those acclamations 
will be heard many events must take place. The Lord 
had already prepared James and John for enduring suf- 
ferings before they could be exalted to honor, and now 
he prepared all his disciples for performing services be- 
fore they could partake of rewards. Zaccheus, in whose 
house at Jericho this parable was spoken, had just shown 
his willingness to serve the Lord by making promises of 
restitution to the injured and of liberality to the poor. 
J lis spirit ought to be the spirit of all the followers 
of Christ. Though wc can only be saved by grace, yet 
must we show our gratitude for this free salvation by 
our works. 

Some have regarded this parable and that of the 



492 THE PARABLES OF JESUS. 

Talents as one and the same. But they are not so. 
Although iu many of their features there is a strong 
resemblance, in others there is a decided difference. 
This parable was, as just intimated, spoken in Jericho ; 
that, while Christ was seated on the Mount of Olives. 
Tins was addressed to a mixed multitude; that, to 
Christ's own immediate disciples. In this there are 
ten servants ; in that there are three. TJiis shows that 
Christians differ in the diligence they display ; that 
shows that they differ in the amount of gifts they 
receive. 

By the " nobleman " is meant our Lord himself, who, 
after the flesh, was of kingly origin, and was besides the 
Son of God. The " far country " is that spoken of by 
Isaiah the prophet, " the land that is afar off" — the 
Holy Place, from which sin has projected us to an 
almost infinite distance, a chasm being created between 
us and the holy place where God reigns. Had not 
Christ come from it to us we had never known the 
way or traveled along it to heaven. The first move- 
ment was made on his part toward us, and our move- 
ment is wholly responsive to his. We are morally, 
rather than physically, far off. So far off are we from 
its happiness and holiness that neither wealth nor 
science nor sail nor wing can ever help us to draw near 
to God and reconstitute ourselves in our forfeited re- 
lationship. But we may be brought so near by grace 
that the humblest child or the greatest of sinners, be- 
lieving and repenting, may touch its shores, having 
traveled thither along the new and living Way. 

Those in Juda?a who by hereditary succession or by 
interest had pretensions to the Jewish throne traveled 
to Rome to have it confirmed to them. Jesus ascended 



THE POUNDS. 493 

into heaven to " receive " — that is, to take possession 
of — the " kingdom/' the right to which, as Messiah, he 
had acquired, and the foundation of which he had laid 
by his obedience and sufferings. All power was given 
to him in heaven and on earth. He was invested with 
the kingdom of God his Father. 

This kingdom is an invisible kingdom ; and if there 
must always be something visible in this kingdom, it 
is only the power which may be seen and felt in the 
actings of the Christian Church, in the exercises of 
individual souls and in the exalted visions of a John. 
The possession of the kingdom consists mainly in the 
execution of the great plan of the Father in Jesus 
Christ; in the deliverance of mankind from the power 
of darkness ; in opening up to them an entrance into 
the kingdom of light, and at last entirely translating 
them into it. But the chief development of this great 
work takes place in the kingdom of spirits, and but 
rarely manifests its influence in the great transactions 
of the world in a manner fitted to strike the eyes of 
men groveling in the dust. As soon, however, as it 
is accomplished the nobleman shall return again. 

" And he called his ten servants, and delivered them 
ten pounds, and said unto them, Occupy till I come." 
A pound was the sixtieth part of a talent, or about 
fifteen dollars. The Greek word, translated " occupy " 
is found only here. It means, literally, "employ in 
business or trading." "The sum here delivered t<» the 
servants," says Trench, "is very much smaller than 
that which, in St. Matthew, the man who was travel- 
ing into a far country committed to his servants' keep- 
ing. This is at once explained if we keep in mind how 
that parable was spoken to the apostles, who of course 



494 



THE PARABLES OE JESUS. 



had received infinitely the largest gifts of any from 
Christ, while this is spoken to the disciples generally, 
whose faculties were comparatively fewer. How re- 
markable is this still ministry, these occupations of 
peace in which the servants of the future King should 
be engaged, and that too while a rebellion was going 
on ! A caviler, remarkably enough, asks, ' Why did 
lie not distribute weapons to his servants ? Such 
would have been under present circumstances the most 
natural thing to have done.' Doubtless the most natural, 
as Peter felt when he cut off the ear of the servant of 
the high priest — as all have felt who have sought to 
fight the world with its own weapons, and by the 
wrath of man to work the righteousness of God. Such 
identifying of the Church with a worldly kingdom has 
been the idea of the Papacy, such of the Anabaptists." 

The place and age in which our lot has been cast, 
our early education, our bodily members and mental 
powers, our station in society and the circle of our 
homes, money, time, health, wealth and influence, and, 
in addition, the graces of the Spirit in whatever meas- 
ure they may have been conferred, — all that we are 
and have belongs to God, and must be used for his 
glory and the good of our fellow-creatures. For the 
use we make of all our gifts, graces and opportunities 
we are to give account. Our belief in the return of 
Christ, and the uncertainty as to the time of his coming, 
ought to make us diligent in improving the sacred trust 
which he has committed to us in whatever way this can 
best be done. 

"But his citizens hated him, and sent a message 
after him, saying, We will not have this man to reign 
over us." This verse is parenthetic, and refers to the 



TEE POUNDS. 495 

settled opposition of those who were adverse to the gov- 
ernment of the prince, now on a visit to a higher poten- 
tate to be confirmed in his kingdom. They went so far 
as to send a counter-embassy to prejudice the claim of 
the nobleman by declaring their unwillingness to receive 
him as their sovereign. How applicable this was to the 
Jews, who rejected their Messianic King, is obvious to 
all. In the whole line of their history, which was that 
of a rebellious and stifmecked people, in their persecu- 
tion and rejection of God's messengers the prophets, 
and their subsequent rejection of the Messiah himself, 
their cry had gone up to heaven, "We will not have 
this man to reign over us." Those who base this par- 
able on the visit of Archelaus to Rome find the ground- 
work of this message in the deputation of fifty persons 
sent by the Jews to Caesar Augustus to complain against 
Archelaus. In regard to the verb hated, the tense in the 
original refers it to a permanent, settled hatred, enter- 
tained toward the prince even before he set out on his 
journey. So the hatred to Christ was deep-seated in 
the Jewish nation, and increased in virulence, under 
every effort which divine love and forbearance put 
forth for its removal, until it reached its culminating 
point in the crucifixion of Him who was their rightful 
Prince and Messiah. 

The word citizens in the parable was well chosen to 
represent the citizens of Jerusalem, who were the chief 
actors in the apprehension and crucifixion of Jesus. 

In the message sent by this counter-embassy the verb 
vill. loses much of its force by being mistaken for the 
auxiliary verb " will." The expression should rather 

be rendered, "We vill that this man shall not reign 
over US." It IS a wicked, insulting will thai originates 



496 THE rARABLES OF JESUS. 

and continues the rebellion. This is no more than a 
shadow of the rebellion of a sinner against his God. 

"And it came to paS8 3 that when he was returned, 
having received the kingdom, then he commanded those 
servants to be called unto him, to whom he had given 
the money, that he might know how much every man 
had gained by trading." There is reference here to the 
general judgment. As the Omniscient, Christ knows 
all things, but the conduct of one and all must be made 
known before the whole world, as also the righteousness 
of the Lord be acknowledged in rewarding and punishing. 

The inquiry made was twofold : first, as to who had 
been diligent ; and, next, as to the gain that had been 
made. On the day of final reckoning all shall give 
their account to the Judge. The dead shall be raised 
from their graves; the living shall all be summoned to 
the bar. The books shall be opened. High and low, 
rich and poor, shall stand "before the judgment-seat of 
Christ " to account for the privileges and opportunities 
with which they were favored in the time of their pro- 
bation. " How great," says an old writer, " will the 
sinner's despair be when he must give an account of 
the employment of his time and of the use of his under- 
standing, will and senses — of all his substance, of all the 
graces he has received, and even of the blood of Jesus 
Christ! The account which pastors must give will be, 
without comparison, much more dreadful. Souls are 
the treasure of Christ : it is in these he desires to grow 
rich. A pastor who neglects them, and does not employ 
his ministry and authority, his time and talents, his 
industry and labors, to gain them for God, — alas ! what 
answer will be be able to make to Him who has entrust- 
ed them to his care".'" 



THE POUNDS. 497 

"Then came the first, saying, Lord, thy pound hath 
gained ten pounds. And he said unto him, Well, thou 
good servant : because thou hast been faithful in a very 
little, have thou authority over ten cities." With a sweet 
and cheerful boldness does the servant come before his 
Lord. The investigation is carried on with each one 
separately. Each must stand or fall on his own merits. 
He acknowledges that the gain is not his own, but the 
Lord's ; therefore, he says, with emphasis, Thy pound. 
So Paul speaks : " I, yet not I, but the grace of God 
that was in me." 

He is not said to have doubled his pound, but, instead 
of this, to have gained ten pounds by his one. Note 
the unbounded power of expansion in the gift of God's 
grace in Christ when faithfully improved by his ser- 
vants ! Such a result may be reached by a minister in 
the Church of God who faithfully discharges his office, 
or by the faithful Sabbath-school teacher or tract-dis- 
tributor, or by the man who liberally distributes his 
means for the good of man and the glory of God, or by 
the magistrate who, in the fear of God, well discharges 
the duty of guarding the morals and peace of society. 
How great will be the consolation of the Christian 
whose conscience shall give testimony of his fidelity at 
the hour of death and at the comiug of Christ! 

The sum entrusted to this servant was comparatively 
small, but it served to test his industry and fidelity, and 
therefore was not permitted to limit his reward. How- 
ever small a man's gifts and opportunities, he is as 
much accountable for using them rightly as if they 
wire very great. The poorest and the humblest Chris- 
tian, if lie use his one pound well, shall be as carefully 
noticed and as fully rewarded as (lie mightiesl king. 



498 THE rARABLES OF JESUS. 

In the words, " Have thou authority over ten cities," 
there is an allusion to the custom formerly prevalent in 
the East of assigning the government and revenues of 
a certain number of towns as a reward to favorites and 
faithful officers. The favor which Christ will show at 
last to his faithful servants will be, first of all, this : he 
will show greater confidence in them now than ever. 
They have had a certain charge committed to them ; 
they have been faithful in that; he will now enlarge 
his trust exceedingly which he will place in their 
hands, on the principle he himself enunciated : " He 
that is faithful in that which is least, will be faithful 
also in much." All the faithful are made great, but 
the greatest worker is the greatest winner when the 
accounts are closed. He who has made the best use 
of grace on earth is, on that very account, fitted for the 
highest place in heaven. 

Let us not pass without remarking the brief but 
generous commendation which is expressed in the 
" Well, thou good servant." Doubtless there had been 
deficiencies: this servant had not always been as dili- 
gent as he might have been ; many an opportunity had 
he let slip unimproved ; but his generous Lord does not 
in the day of reckoning go back thus upon the past to 
drag out of it all that could be brought up against him. 
He takes the gross result, and sees in it the evidence 
of a prevailing fidelity. Ungrudgingly and without any 
drawback he pronounces his sentence of commendation 
and bestows his rich reward. No earthly lord or mas- 
ter, in fable or in fact, on any day of reckoning ever 
dealt so generously with those who had tried to serve 
him as our heavenly Lord and Master will deal with 
us if honestly and sincerely, though with manifold 



THE POUNDS. 499 

imperfections, we give ourselves to the doing of his 
will. 

"And the second came, saying, Lord, thy pound 
hath gained five pounds. And he said likewise to 
him, Be thou also over five cities." The fullness of 
commendation bestowed on the first servant is withheld 
from the second, who with the same amount had only 
gained the half of what the first had gained. This 
intimates that the reward should be different in just 
that proportion in which the profit of the labor is 
greater or less. The gain, indeed, creates the capacity 
for the reward. The honor, riches, power and author- 
ity of a temporal government are but a faint shadow 
of that which he shall receive at the hands of God who 
has faithfully managed and improved the wealth of his 
sovereign Master. The doctrine of reward according to 
works is here plainly taught, as it is also in other places 
in the Scripture : " Every man shall receive his own re- 
ward according to his own labor." There are degrees 
of glory in heaven. Every vessel will be alike full, but 
not alike large. The degree of glory there will be 
according to the degree of usefulness here. 

" And another came, saying, Lord, behold, here is thy 
pound, which I have kept laid up in a napkin : for I 
feared thee, because thou art an austere man : thou 
takest up that thou layedst not down, and reapcst that 
thou didst not sow. 

"And he saith unto him, Out of thine own mouth 
will I judge thee, thou wicked servant. Thou knewest 
that I was an austere man, taking up that I laid not 
down, and reaping that I did not sow: wherefore then 
gavest not thou my money into the bank, that at my 
coining I might have required mine own with usury? 



500 THE PARABLES OF JESUS. 

And he said unto them that stood by, Take from him 
the pound, and give it to him that hath ten pounds." 
We can well understand why this servant who kept the 
pound in the napkin lingered to the last, reluctant to 
appear in the presence of his Lord. He had not 
improved the gifts bestowed upon him. 

" The case of the servant who allowed his pound to 
lie unused," says Dr. Arnot, " is not different from the 
corresponding case in the parable of the Talents, except 
in one thing. In this parable the pound which the 
indolent servant had permitted to lie idle is simply 
taken out of his hands ; while in the other parable 
the unprofitable servant is cast into outer darkness. 
The lesson, in as far as it is the same in both, is, that 
not only those who do positive wickedness, but those 
also who fail to do good, are counted guilty in God's 
sight. Inasmuch as in this parable no other punishment 
is inflicted on the indolent servant than the deprivation 
of his capital, it may possibly be intended to intimate 
that culpable unfaithfulness in a true believer may 
sometimes descend so far as to be undistinguishable by 
human eyes from the entire neglect of the unbelieving. 
There is, however, in all cases, a dividing-line, although 
we may not be able to trace it : ' The Lord knoweth 
them that are his.' Nor does this conception really 
weaken the motive to diligence, for if any one should 
slacken in his efforts- to serve the Lord on the ground 
that a great degree of negligence, although it may 
diminish his reward, does not imperil his safety, this 
very thing would conclusively prove that he has no 
part in Christ. It is the nature of the new creature to 
be forgetting the things behind, and reaching forth to 
those that are before, when the leaning of a man's heart 



THE POUNDS. 501 

goes in the opposite direction ; that is, when he deliber- 
ately endeavors to make matters as pleasant as possible 
for himself by escaping from all service to Christ except 
as much as is necessary to carry him safe to heaven, he 
certainly has not yet been born again, and in this state 
shall not see the kingdom. He who sails along the sea 
of Christian profession, loving the neighborhood land 
of worldly indulgence, and therefore hugging the shore 
as closely as he thinks consistent with safety, will cer- 
tainly make shipwreck. Ah ! the ship that thus seeks 
the shore is drawn by the unseen power of a magnet- 
mountain — drawn directly to her doom. He who is 
truly bound for the better land gives these treacherous 
headlands a wide berth." 

In the taking of the pound from the idle, suspicious, 
unfaithful servant, who otherwise might have had that 
and much more allotted to him, we see how strikingly 
the lesson is taught in the parable that while each man's 
proper and direct reward shall exactly tally with his 
proper and individual work and its results, yet that in 
the distribution of extra or additional favors regard 
shall be had to existing position, existing possessions 
and existing capability. 

In the saying of our Lord, "That unto every one 
which hath shall be given : and from him that hath not, 
even that he hath shall be taken away from him," he 
unfolds the deep ground of his procedure, which, so far 
from being arbitrary, consists in the highest righteous- 
ness. Obviously, the words "which hath" mean 
" which possesseth and useth aright." The wicked 
servant was distinguished from the others, not by not 
having, but by not using. The law announced here is 
that they who employ well whaf they have shall retain 



502 THE PARABLES OF JESUS. 

it all, and receive more in addition; -whereas they who 
do not rightly employ what they have will be deprived 
of that which they possess and do not use. "The earth 
which bringeth forth herbs/meet for them by whom it 
is dressed, reeeiveth blessing ;" that is, a further blessing 
— the gift of a continued fruitfulness "from God." Nor 
is it merely that the one receives more, and the other 
loses what he had, but that very gift which the one loses 
the other receives. 

AVe see this continually. One, by the providence of 
God, steps into the place and the opportunities which 
another left unused, and so has forfeited (1 Sam. xv. 
28). The words, " from him that hath not," mean 
" from him that does not use." This is a natural as 
well as a penal effect of not using what we were 
bound to turn to proper account. If Ave cease to use 
a limb, its muscles shrivel and its strength departs. 
Corn hoarded up in the granary is soon destroyed. In- 
tellect not drawn on soon flags. This taking away is a 
process. It is steadily going forward in this world. It 
will be completed in the next, where all further proba- 
tion and chance for doing service will utterly and eter- 
nally cease. 

" But those mine enemies, which Mould not that I 
should reign over them, bring hither, and slay them 
before me." It can hardly be questioned that the de- 
struction of Jerusalem is primarily intended in this 
verse, but it would deprive the passage of its principal 
force to limit it to the temporal punishment of Christ's 
enemies. The language has a more extensive significa- 
tion, and includes the final overthrow and punishment 
of all the enemies of truth in the world to come. The 
" enemies " are here named contemptuously, as they 



THE POUNDS. 503 

previously had named their lawful king. The com- 
mand, "bring hither, and slay them before me," is given 
to those who were addressed in verse 24, and expresses 
strongly the severity and hopelessness of the coming 
retribution. The sudden breaking off of the parable 
heightens not a little its impressiveness. They who 
will not submit to Christ the Crucified will be crushed 
by Christ the King. Every eye shall see him, they 
also who pierced him. Meekly now he stands at the 
door and knocks ; then he comes as the lightning comes. 
Those who surrender to him now will be his friends 
then. 



THE END. 



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